Burning
by sky and stars
Summary: Claire and Quil fic. I can't really sum it up well but please read
1. Chapter 1

Thanks for reading and Please review, please. Okay I'm done. Here is the first chapter of burning. Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has to do with Twilight.

Chapter One

"Claire."

"Claire.

Even in my deep sleep I cold hear my mom's voice waking me from my slumber." Mom"

I moned. Come on Claire it's eleven already and I think it's time for you to greet the day."

That's my mom for you overly positive and constantly like a ray of sunshine. Unfortunaly

That was not my mood this morning. "Mom" I said in an exasperated tone" it's the first

day of summer it's my job to sleep in and do nothing today." "No it's not" as she said this

she flung open the blinds and let the mid morning sun in. " Mom, shut the blinds" I said

just getting madder at her. " Anyway," she continued not listening to me" your brother

has a football game today at Twelve and your coming." Typical, I thought my brother has

a football game on the first day of summer and for some strange reason I had to go.

"But mom I was going to hang out with Sherya, Amanda, and Mariah today" I protested.

"Claire" she said in a very stern voice losing her positive attitude" I think your brother

your support more then hanging out with your friends." Again, I have to sacrifice my

plans for the sake of my brother and sister." And anyway, it's the championship game and

you go to the same school as him so you get the chance to show some school spirit! You

might even see some of your friends there. Yes, to all of your questions my mom was a

cheerleader the captain. I guess it stuck with her through her whole life. She was still the

walking sign of spirit. "Come on we got to go" she said walking out of my room leaving

the door wide open. I hate it when people leave the door open. To me a room was

someone's heart and soul. To leave the door open and let people into my heart was not

okay with me. I don't let many people into my heart and soul and know everything about

me. I would rather be ignored and have no one know anything about me then be noticed

and popular. In other words I have learned the truth about the saying silence is golden.

Thinking about how unfair it was that I had to go to my brother's football game I slowly

climbed out of bead, shut my door, and looked at myself in the mirror. All I saw in my

reflection was green eyes filled with sadness staring back at me. "Why doesn't anyone

want me?" I asked myself. I looked in my shirt drawer and pulled out a two sizes to big

black tee shirt ignoring the pink, purple, and baby blue shirts on the bottom. I pulled the

shirt over my head of long, frizzy, unmanageable, chocolate brown hair. Maybe I would

actually make my hair look presentable today. I pulled out a long forgotten hair brush and

started to attack my hair. I hardly ever care about my hair. With my hair so thick and

tangle it took me forever to make it retilivly okay looking. But I was determined to

make my wild mass of hair actually presentable. After ten minuets I gave up and pulled

it all up into a pony tail. Well, at least I tried. I thought. Even with my effort on my

appearance I still did not look pretty like my twin sister who of course is a cheerleader

since my mom was determined to make one of us a cheerleader. Never mind she

wanted to be a cheerleader. " What's the point?" I muttered to myself" I'll never look

pretty." With that I walk out the door closing the door behind me.


	2. Chapter 2

Burning

Chapter Two

As I raced down the stairs I ran into the devil herself. Charlotte Young aka my twin

sister. "Watch where your going looser." That's my sister for you self absorbed, most

popular girl in school and to top that off the captain of the varsity cheerleading team

when we just finished our freshman year. Yes, I'm only a freshman. Actually since it's

summer I can technically be called a sophomore. Cool. Everyone in our school only has

too only feel the wrath of Charlotte for only eight months in a year and only seven hours a day.

I unfortualy have to feel her wrath twenty four seven. I leaped over the last couple of

stairs landing in the kitchen. This almost gives my dad a heart attack even though I do it

every single day. My dad is the jumpiest, most paranoid person I have ever met in my

life. I have always wondered why. Maybe he used to be an FBI agent and is now really

paranoid about bad things happening. Anyway, his toast pops up in the toaster with a

ping. Even this minor sound makes him jump out of his skin. Wow. He pikes up his toast,

put it on a plate, and pick's it up with a loose hold when I pray that he doesn't drop it. He

takes a bite out of his toast and at that exact moment my huge, senior, captain of the

football team brother comes charging into the kitchen yelling" Where's my helmet? I

need my helmet." His arms are flailing around his head making him look like a flying

bird. Sometimes I wonder if I was actually born into the right family. My mom then came

screaming into the kitchen." Calm down, it's in the laundry room." How he actually

calmed down was beyond me. You do not want to be on the same planet when my mom

is mad. Through all the shouting and screaming we failed to notice until now the

sputtering sound coming from the counter. See I came up with this theory that only these

weird and random things can happen to me. When something could go wrong they

always did. Guess what just happened. My dad was choking on his toast. When my

mom realized this, not being calm under pressure, began screaming at my father what's wrong what's wrong. This is obveseioly not helping. Thank

god that Charlotte is good under pressure. "Mom" says Charlotte "he's choking. He needs

the Heimlich." Apparently all those seventh grade health classes really rubbed off on her.

But what everyone failed to notice that my dad still had his plate loosely in his hand and

when Charlotte did the Heimlich his reaction was to throw his plate right at me. Ya see

what I mean about that theory. With my slow reaction time the plate hit me hard in the

shoulder. Piercing pain came through my shoulder as the glass hit me. I sank down to the

floor, clutching my shoulder, unaware of anything else. I felt blood trickle into my hand

and down my arm. I felt the glass penetrating my the skin on my shoulder. What I did

see was the was my dad gasping and panting for air but he was all right. Through is

gasping he managed to gasp thanks. Anytime replied Charlotte in an overconfident voice.

Hey, dudes where did the plate go said my brother Jason who was standing on the

opposite side of the room holding his football helmet." I think I hit the wall, but it

doesn't matter. Right now we are going to be late said my mom who was already half

way to the door. For a moment all the pain in my arm disappeared and all I felt was

disbelief. They didn't even notice me. They did not even notice me when I'm sitting on

the ground bleeding. I don't belong here. I need to get out. What about Claire? Asked my

brother. Oh, right well honey she said looking at my father will you tell Claire that we

left and that she had better be their when the game starts. With that Charlotte in her

leading outfit, Jason with his football helmet, and my mom left. Leaving me bleeding on

ground curled up in a ball with pain.

Hi guys thanks for reading. I am not going to update until I have 2 reviews but more are

welcome. Please review. Thanks

Sky and Stars


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

They did not notice I was here. That was the only thing I could think about. Their word

kept ringing and repeating in my head and they would not stop. I sat slumped against the

wall in utter disbelief that no one saw me when I was bleeding fiercely. Was I really that

unnoticeable? Finally I felt the pain in my arm numbed before because of my shock. I

shakily got up and slowly half walked and crawled up the stairs. Right before I went up I

saw my dad waiting by the toaster toasting another toast. I ignored it and crawled into the

bathroom. When I looked in the mirror I saw the true damage. My whole shoulder and

part of my arm was red with little pieces of glass sticking out of my shoulder. There was

blood all over my arm and down my shirt and even a little in my hair. Gritting my teeth

as gently as I could I pulled out the glass shards lodged into my shoulder wincing in pain

as I did. For about the last 10 years of my life I had gotten used to patching my self

because after falling of my bike about three times every summer without anyone noticing

you get used to doing this. When all the glass was out and the blood wiped off the cut

was really not that bad. There were really just lots of little cuts that really should not have

bled so much but I had always been a heavy bleeder. I got some medical tape out of the

cupboard over head and started rapping it around my arm. There is no possible way we

have a band aid as big as my shoulder so this was going to have to work. I know that I

should probably clean it out better so it does not get infected but I did not have any time.

I knew that my mom wanted me to be on time for the game which meant that I would end

up running the three miles to the school. That was not a problem with me though I loved

to run. To me running was a way to express yourself without even saying anything.

Considering my family even if I did try to express myself in words I would just be

ignored. I rand out of the bathroom and into my room threw off my blood stained shirt

and put a new one on. I looked across my bed and saw that it was 11:45. The game

started in 15 minuets. I was screwed. I ran down the stairs ignoring my father who was

now yelling at me for not being at the game already. Yell at yourself your not there. I

went out the door jogging at first but then could no longer control the fiery energy that

was building up inside of me. I sprinted all three miles with out even stopping. I was

sweating pretty badly and was exusted but I felt better then I had in a long time. I looked

at a clock as I went through the school as I short cut to the football field. It was 12:10

surely they did not start yet. I was wrong. I went out the back of the school and saw

people running around a field, tackling each other and running around like the world was

going to end if they did not get the ball. What is happening to the world? Deciding I

could no longer put off seeing my mother I walked up the bleacher steps accepting my

fate. I saw my mom on the first row of the middle bleaches. Great. There is no way to

avoid her and oh crap she looked mad. Getting mad at her kids twice in one hour has got

to be a record. I timidly walked up and sat down next to her. "Claire." She said with

venom in her voice. Uh-oh." I can not believe that you are late." She said in a quick stern

whisper, still not looking at me. I was way more frightening then if she was yelling at me.

How come adults never seem to understand that? "This is your brother's championship

game I don't think you are doing your job of supporting him. Why were you late?" I was

completely confused she was the one who left without me so really it was not my fault.

"You left without me." When I said that I tried to make my voice strong but it only came

out as a whisper." So now you're blaming me for your mistake, Claire." What could I say

to that? "No. I just…." "Claire," She interrupted" there is no excuse for being late. You

should have been here. Never mind, forget it you are no hope. I just wish you were more

like your sister and brother. Oh well." She said this with a sigh and forced a sad smile. I

slowly got up and continued walking down the aisle of the bleachers fighting back tears. I

walked up the farthest set of bleachers and tucked myself into the corner and finally let

the tears out. Why did my mom not understand that I was my own person and could not

be like my brother and sister? I would completely loose myself which I the thing I am

most scared of. I'd already gone through the loosing yourself then finding yourself again

stage in 8th grade and did not need to do that again. When I tried to tell my friends about

it they just laughed at me and said I was being over emotional. I could not do that again

either. Wasn't I good enough for my mother? By the time the 1st period had ended my

tears had finally slowed but you could still see the evidence of crying on my face. I felt

my face stiff from tears and I could feel it all red and blotchy. "Hi Claire." I jumped

violently and looked over to see Sean standing next to me. When had he come up here?

Oh great. This was the guy who had asked me out five times in six years. I always said no

though because I did not need a boyfriend yet. All I needed was a best friend. A person

who I could tell anything to. Sadly I never even liked a guy before but I always had the

feeling that I am waiting for someone and I will know when I see him. I looked up and

him and noticed that he was kinda dorky cute with his blue eyes and his blonde hair.

"Um- yeah, hi what's up?" I said very awkwardly and quietly. "What's wrong?" He said

with concern all over his face. Wow the person I don't want to notice me does. That's

talent. "Nothing" I said quickly wiping off the tears that lined my face. "Okay, you don't

have to tell me if you don't want to." Maybe he was a nice guy maybe I should give him a

chance. "I like your necklace. Where did you get it?" I then realized that I was clutching

the medallion that hung around my neck. I was silver and was a little bit bigger then my

hand. It had a wolf carved into it that was colored a chocolate brown. I wear it all the

time even when I sleep "I don't know where I got it. My mom says I got it for my 2nd

birthday from someone. But she won't tell me who." "Why" "Don't know." "Can I see it?"

I just nodded and moved over closer to him so he could see it better. I picked it off of my

neck and examined it. I turned it over and saw the little Q that was imprinted there. "Why

does it have a Q on it?" "No idea." Through out the rest of the game we continued talking

in awkwardness and finally the game was over. It was 5:30. The game had lasted five and

a half hours. We went into like 5 overtimes and finally our team had won. I said bye to

Sean and started walking home not bothering to find my parents. They would leave

without me anyway. It took me a full hour to get home because A. I did not want to face

my family and B. my whole body stung from running three miles before stretching. I

walked up wished for quiet and being alone. Of course with my luck my wish was not

granted. I walked into my house and was greeted by loud music and what felt like

millions of people. We were having a party so much for quiet. I walked to the stairs side

stepping all the celebrators getting squished between them. I finally got to the top of the

stairs and practically fell into my room. I got up, walked to my bed and fell into a restless

sleep to the loud thumping music and the chatter of other people. I woke up at exactly

three in the morning. I rolled onto my back and stared up at ceiling and wondered about

what I should do for the next four hours until everyone got up. I then saw something in

the move in the corner of my room. My heart started thumping so hard that I could feel

its pulse throughout my body. I was frozen in place. I have always been known for over

reacting and it was probably just my imagination. I finally got the nerve and slowly got

the nerve and sat up on my bed. What I saw was a man who was so pale that he

practically glowed in the dark of my room. His eyes were a dark deep red which is

something that I have never seen before. He had longish brown hair and was not a huge

guy but was way bigger then me. Before I could react he was suddenly next so fast that I

did not even see him. "Hello Claire don't take any of this personally its just bisness." How

does he know my name? Before I could react he swiftly picked me up by the neck and

pressed me against the wall. I started gasping and sputtering I could not breathe. I could

feel my consciousness slipping away from me and I started seeing dark spots across my

vision. I kicked at him but my legs never got any purchase and this action only made him

squeeze harder. I felt his hands dig into my throat and felt blood drip down my throat.

"Wow you smell wonderful." What did he mean by that? I could no longer see anything

and my thoughts were becoming muddled. Finally he dropped me on the ground and I

saw a hazy figure move across my room and then saw nothing.

I woke up the smell of smoke. I slowly got up my head pounding and my whole body

acing. The smoke was swirling around ceiling. Where was it coming from? I went to the

door in a haze and felt the door. It was hot. There is a fire in my house. Why weren't the

smoke dictators going off? I felt my feet nudge something. I looked down and saw

batteries spread across the floor. They were the batteries from the smoke dictators." Oh,

God." Then I did the stupidest thing anyone could do. I got down of the floor and opened

the door. Suddenly I felt fire scorch my shoulder and then felt a sharp pain and I knew I

had been burned. I looked up and saw the flames coming into my room licking the walls

and the fire was now spreading to the floor coming right at me. I got up quickly filling

my lungs with smoke. I had to get out of here was the only thought I had as I coughed so

hard that it felt like my lungs were going to start bleeding. I heard a creaking above me

and saw that the ceiling was caving in and it was going to fall. I knew that I would not

have time to move so I just lay on the floor. I head a loud crack and then I was scorched

by burning wood. I felt some of my hair burst into flames and I felt pure fire go right

against. I screamed in pain and then i saw that my whole room was on fire. My body had

blood and sweat rolling down it. In my intense pain I had the thought that I had to get out

of here. I climbed to my knees brushing all the debris off of me and made it to the

window and climbed out. I gratefully sucked in clean air. But then I felt heat against my

already burned back and saw that the fire was coming through the window and catching

the roof on fire. I could hear sirens in the distance but they would get here to late to save

me. I was going to jump. My mom made me take this class when I was younger about

safety. They always said to jump off the roof if you had to. I thought it was pretty funny

back then but now I realized it make perfect sense. I scooted to the edge of the roof and

pushed myself off. It felt like I was flying for a moment but then my body hit the ground

with a sickening thud. I was then floating in darkness.

**Hey guys. Sorry its been a while since I have updated. My computer was not working, I have been really busy and sick. What do you guys think? This time I want 4 reviews before I update. Quill is not in the story yet because Claire does not live in La Plush because her mom kinda freaked about him being a wolf. Don't panic he will be in the story soon. A lot of people are giving me advice about the format of this story. Honestly, I have no idea on how to fix it but I tried a different tactic on this chapter and hopefully it works. Thanks for reading. I will try to review later this week. A special thanks to Quil Explodes. Even though I had no idea what line brakes are thanks for telling me that the format is weird. I did not notice. Thanks. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has to do with Twilight. **

**-Sky and Stars **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Quil's Point of View

It was finally six and I had just gotten off my three hour shift for dinner. No one over the last couple of years was on parole during dinner. I ran effortlessly through the jumble of the forest towards Sam's and Emily's house. They had gotten married thirteen years ago and no had a twelve year old son. They were still hopelessly lost in love for each other. As their house came into view I changed into my human self. I walked into the house and saw that I was once again the last one here. "Hey, Quil." Emily said from across the kitchen as Sam from behind her wrapped his arms around her waist." We were waiting for you." Then I noticed that everyone was gathered around the edges of the small kitchen all staring at the food that was uneaten. "Yeah, Quil what took you so long. Thinking about Claire were we." Jacob said in a joking manor. Personally I did not think it was funny because truthfully I really had been thinking about her. Even though I had been thinking about her I denied it and said "no" but I don't think anyone was fooled. I miss her so much I constantly think about her and there has been a constant ache in my stomach since the day that I let her leave. It was for her own good you had to do it so she could grow up away from werewolves and vampires. Sure we got Christmas cards and school pictures but that was not enough. In a picture you could get a sense of what someone looks like but not who they are. I would give anything to know who she is. Anything. I was forced out of my own world when Emily announced that the food was ready. Even though all of us were in our twenties we still acted and looked like teenagers. Jake and Embry were fighting over which of piece of chicken they want and Leah and Paul arguing over something pointless. Everyone always kids that Sam and I are the only ones who grew up. I headed to the food when everyone was eating avoiding the huge mob of people. I don't get why everyone is rushing Emily always makes enough food. I headed out side with Seth, Jared, Kim, Emily, and Sam. Seth, Sam, and I all stuffed down about 8 pieces of chicken while the girls only ate one or two. I always thought that when girls ate so little while we ate so much was funny. It started raining so we all headed into the crowded kitchen which was fine with me. Later in the night when everyone was trying to make Sam mad which was almost impossible now the phone rang. " I'll get it" said Emily in a singsong voice. She answered the phone and her smile turned into a frown as she said "hello. Yes." The whole kitchen was quiet as her eyes filled up with tears and spilled down her face. " Okay, thanks." She said her voice cracking on the last word and she hung up. Sam immediately came up to her and wrapped her up in a hug as she started sobbing into his chest. He sat her down on the floor as she mumbled things like there dead. Once she had calmed down a little bit still buried in Sam's arms she told us what happened. She told us that Claire's house had started on fire and that her entire family was dead. Claire was the only one who survived by jumping off the two story roof of their house. She was now in the hospital. She was going to come and live with Sam and Emily next week. When this information passed through my brain the room felt like it was spinning and I fell to the floor and put my head between my knees. Once I felt better I looked around at my family and saw that everyone was in different stages of shock and horror. Then I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks and felt my heart turn a darker shade of blue.

**Hi guys this time I am putting this story in a different setting so maybe that will work better. This time I want three reviews before I update again. Well thanks for reading.**

**-Sky and Stars **


	5. Chapter 5

Burning Chapter 5

Burning Chapter 5

One week later

I can not tell you how much I hate hospitals but I would rather be there then one a plane

right now. I have never been on a plane before and it was really scary. When the plane

took off I seriously thought we were all going to die. I get motion sickness so easily that I

feel sick on a Farris wheel. That was the reason that I was throwing up all the way to La

Plush, Washington. I stayed in a hospital for a week and that was complete torture. They

made me stay in one spot for a whole week hardly moving which is very hard for me to

do. When the doctors told me that everyone else died I did not believe it. When I realized

that they would not joke around about this kind of thing I went into shock. I did not talk

to anyone for three whole days out of grief and depression. I should have did something

to save them. It's all my fault. I should of saved them. When I finally had this thought I

started crying and did not stop for hours. I cried so hard that at first the nurses tried to

comfort me but when they realized I would not stop they gave up and stayed as far away

from my room as possible. I did not have anyone visit me or any cards or anything. All

my friends were avoiding me I knew it. Finally when I stopped crying the next day the

doctor finally told me what happened to me. He said that I have three broken ribs, Four

degree burns running down my one shoulder, he said that they would scar eventually and

I would have that same mark for the rest of my life. He also said that I have a sprained

ankle, a broken wrist and bruises and scratches lined up and down my arms and face.

Like I didn't know that already. The one thing that he did not mention was the five

scratches on my neck that were lined up as if someone chocked me. I did not tell them

about the man because I knew they would think I would have a concussion or something

like that. They also told me that I was going to some place on the other side of the

country called La Plush. I knew that my mom left when I was really little for a odd

reason and she never wanted to tell me no matter how much I asked her. She refused to

go back. We had lost all contact with everyone in La Plush but they were the only family

I had and I was going to live with my aunt Emily and uncle Sam. I still did not believe in

my mind that they were really gone. If just felt like they were on a vacation and they

forgot about me. My family did it twice how sad is that. In my heart I knew that they

were gone but my mind would not believe it. Why was I so sad about this? Shouldn't I

not care because I know that they did not care about me in any way? I thought about this

as I threw up in the bathroom of the plane. I silently vowed to never go on a plane again

and just drive everywhere. Face it I would never have to go across an ocean. Finally after

a 5 hour plane to Seattle I made it. The flight attendant came in to tell me that we were

going to land and I slowly got up on my wobbly ankle and walked to my seat. Why had

no thought to give me crutches? I sat down next to the old lady who had the unfortunate

luck of sitting next to me. When I first felt sick I had tried to run to the bathroom but it

hurt my ribs too much and I didn't make it so I threw up all of her. I think that goes in the

top 10 embarrassing moments of my life time and probably hers too. When I sat down

next to her she gave me an evil look and just looked out the window. Thank god I thought

she was going to kill me when I had to retreat from the bathroom to my seat. I felt the

plane descending and I fought back the nausea that was treating to come up. Finally we

landed without me pukeing again. I slowly got up ignoring the searing pain going

throughout my body and limped off the plane with the other passengers. I knew I looked

like a train wreck because I had probably not showered in three days, and looked like I

had just come out of a nuclear war. Not to mention that I had just puked my guts out.

When I hit solid ground and started walking around I slowly felt worse and worse and got

really nervous. Over the last week I had been getting random panic attacks. I made it

outside but then got so tired that I collapsed onto a bench under the overhang. I could feel

people's eyes looking carefully away from me but I did not care what anyone else thought

at the moment. Then I noticed that I had a huge problem I had no idea what Aunt Emily

and Uncle Sam looked like. But I would find them, hopefully. A sat on the bench for a

good part of twenty minuets just watching the rain poor down. Then I heard shouts of

Claire coming from around the other side of the building. I turned my head around so fast

I almost got whiplash. I saw two people coming from around the corner and saw an

average size woman and a gigantic man. They were both looking in every which way that

there eyes would let them with complete panic on their face. Finally the man's eyes found

me sitting on the bench and looked deeply into my eyes. When he saw me his expression

turned kind and gentle and a small smile played on his lips. I reached out to the woman

who was now screaming my name frantically, pulled her into him and whispered

something in to her ear. When he finished she pulled away from him gently and turned to

me." You're Claire. Aren't you." I gave a little nod and just to let her know that she was

right. "Well, Claire" she said in a gentle voice coming a little closer "I'm Emily and this is

Sam." She said motioning to the huge guy behind her. She just stood there waiting for me

to say something but my lips could form no words. Come on Claire say something you

have to say something I thought. Even though I thought that I knew that I was not going

to say anything. "Okay then are you ready to go?" I got up for my answer but I knew that

I was not hiding my pain well and they knew that it hurt to move. I tried to take a step but

suddenly I was up in the air with something warm wrapped around me. I tried to figure

out what happened but then realized that Sam had just picked me up. I knew that my eyes

reflected shock when he looked down at me and I looked back up at him. When he

looked down and saw my expression he just laughed. He laughed what is up with these

people? Randomly picking up someone with no warning. What is happening to the

world? I heard a car door unlock and open and I felt myself being lowered down into the

back seat. Once I was set down Sam let go of me, shut the door, opened his door, and

started the car. Soon we were driving through what seemed like a rainforest in a very

awkward silence. Soon after an hour of driving I got so tired that I laid down and rested

my eyes. Soon I fell asleep to the rumbling engine under me.

Sam's Point of View

"She's asleep." Whispered Emily as she peaked into the backseat. "That's good she looks

like she hasn't slept in days." I replied. Soon the awkward silence was gone and Emily

and I were free to be ourselves. I loved being with Emily. With the pack I had to be

responsible one, with the pack I had to be the leader. With Emily I could be who ever I

wanted to be. That's one of the many reasons why I love her so much. An hour later we

made it to our house. Emily and I got out and I gently picked Claire up and took her

inside. She felt so fragile in my arms. She was so small for someone who is 14. I took her

into the basement and set her on the couch. I turned the lights out and walked back up the

stairs. I could not wait for Quil to meet her.

**Hi guys, sorry it's been a while. I had some serious writers block and I have not had any time to go on the computer. I swear a certain family member of mine is on the computer from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to bed. ** **Just to let you know ****Claire was not bitten by a vampire.****Sorry for any confusion. And guess what Quil is going to meet Claire in the next chapter. I swear that I will update on Saturday. Track starts tomorrow so I will have even less time to update then usual. Sorry. Thanks to all my reviewers and this time I want 4 reviews. Or I will not update. Thanks for reading.**

**-Sky and Stars. **


	6. Chapter 6

Burning Chapter 6

Burning Chapter 6

Quil's Point of View

We were all crowed in the Clearwater's House. Embry and Paul were having an arm

wrestling match and to Embry's dismay he was losing. Leah and Sue were talking to

Erica ( Jacob's imprint), Seth was with his imprint, Lily and everyone else was standing

around talking with other people. But I was not with these people. I was barely even here

them talking. They were just like a small breeze in the back of my consciousness. I was

sitting in the family room on a bench facing the fire blazing in the fireplace. I was staring

at the fire without really seeing it. All I saw was small glimpses of light coming from an

aimless direction. All I could think of was Claire. I was so excited yet nervous that she

would not like me. So happy that she came to La Push but yet sad that she came here by

something so terrible. When Sam got here he said that I could come and meet her. But it

was already nine thirty at night and she would probably be sleeping. But maybe that

would be easier to meet her if she was sleeping. Right now I was not sure of anything.

The clock seemed to moving at a snails pace. A minute for every second. Because Claire

was coming to Sam's house tonight we had our weekly get together at the Clearwater's

house. Sue was no Emily at cooking but she was still very good. I heard someone call me

from my unconsciousness. "Quil, Quil." I heard and finally I recognized Sam's voice. I

turned out of my trance so suddenly that when I turned toward him he jumped back. "You

can go and see her." He whispered into my ear but of course most of us being

werewolves could here what he had said. I could feel people's eyes shifting

uncomfortably around the room looking at anything but me. I wordlessly got up and

followed Sam out the door. I walked to his house in silence. I unable to say anything.

Finally I said the question that I have been dying to ask. "What is she like?" "Well she

seems very shy and reserved a little bit like you. She also looks like she is in a lot of pain

but she seems like one of the people who will try to hide it." I just nodded, trying not to

freak out and run to her at the thought of her being hurt. Sam opened his house door for

me and I timidly stepped in. Sam led the way to the basement door quietly opened it and

motioned me downstairs. As soon as I was a couple stairs down he gently shut the door

behind me. I continued down the stairs until I saw a figure lying down on the couch. I felt

heat rise up inside me and I ran quietly down the rest of the steps. I looked down and saw

a beautiful angle. He face had scratches across her face but she was still very pretty. He

brown hair was wild and untamed but I loved it. Her clothes were big and baggy and she

smelled a little bit like fire but she was still the most beautiful person I have ever seen.

Suddenly she jumped in her sleep and started muttering some unknowable words. I

quickly grabbed her had with the unbroken wrist and when I touched her it felt like fire

rushed through me. With my touch she seemed to calm down a bit but instead she just

started shivering. I grabbed the blanket off the couch and put it down over her. Gently I

stroked back her hair from her face while holding on to her hand. Time went by as I just

sat there staring at her oblivious to anything else. Every moment falling more in love with

her. Then I saw a streak of light come from the stairs. "Quil," I heard someone whisper.

"We have a vampire problem. We need you….NOW." Why do these things always

happen at the worst possible moment. I took a last look at Claire who was now sleeping

peacefully, kissed her on the forehead and ran up the stairs.

**Hi guys. I am so sorry that this chapter is two days late. We had some plans that I did not know about on Sunday and Saturday. Sorry. So what do you think? This time I want 4 reviews before I update again. I can't make any promises about updating but I swear it will be in the next week or so. Thanks for reading and all the reviews from the last update. **

**-Sky and Stars **


	7. Chapter 7

Burning Chapter Seven

Burning Chapter Seven

**Quil's Point of View **

I ran with Sam out the door and into the still night. We ran in human form until the edge of the forest, but once inside

the forest we both phased in mid air. Suddenly everyone's thoughts came rushing into my head. One of the

inconveniences when everyone was a wolf at the same time. Both Sam and I ran at full speed to our regular meeting

place. I could here everyone's thoughts echoing inside so loud that I could not even tell who was thinking it. Some

thoughts were excited others nervous and some just plain board. We got to the meeting place and we were the last ones

there." Guys, listen up." Sam thought immediately taking the role of leader. Everyone's thoughts immediately got softer

and softer until there was just a small mummer in the background of Sam." When Paul was on watch tonight he smelt a

vampire and it is our job to find it and kill it before it hurts anyone." He turned his head around the circle and looked

everyone directly in the eye before thinking" lets go." We all took off with wild howls and barks. We split up in

different directions but still staying within eyesight of everyone. We had ran for maybe a mile when Sam suddenly

stopped and we stopped with him. He started sniffing the air and then we smelled it too. Vampire. Immediately we

sprinted after the sent racing to find the vampire. After a couple twists and turns through the forest the sent broke off

into two. We all stared at each other in wonderment. We have never seen this before. One of the paths was going

deeper into the forest, but the other path was going toward the road that was only a half mile away. "Leah, Jacob,

Embry, Paul go with the path into the forest. Quil, Seth, Jared come with me." Sam said to us. Seth and I followed Sam

toward the road every couple of minutes making sure that we were on the right trail. I could hear Leah, Jacob, Embry,

and Paul's thoughts and I knew that they had not found anything either. We crossed the road and continued to follow

the sent deeper into the forest. I loved being a wolf I felt powerful, strong, and I felt I could do anything. I let my mind

wander and ended up thinking about Claire. I wondered if she was in a lot of pain or if she was awake right now

wondering where she is. I felt the need to run to her but I knew that I had to do this first. My wondering mind was

awakened when Sam and Seth made a sudden sharp turn to the right. Before we were headed to the west but now we

were going to the west. If we continued to go straight we would go right to Emily and Sam's house. As we continued to

follow the sent and we got ever so closer to Sam's house I tried to hide my panic. Once we were within five miles

distance of their house I started to feel Sam panic too. We continued to run both Sam and I about ready to have heart

attacks from panic. We ran faster then we thought was possible and soon Seth was a good 20 feet behind us. We

followed the sent and we ended up on Sam's porch with the sent going inside the house. I heard Sam call for the other

four to come here as fast as they can right before we phased back and went inside.

**Evil Random Vampire Point of View **

I went through the forest winding around in various directions so it would confuse the wolves. At a certain point I used

my power and duplicated myself making it seem that I had gone in two different directions at once. I then took the most

confusing route I could think of to the alphas house were I know the kid would be. I got to the house and it smelled

awful. Like wet dog. Ignoring the smell I continued through the house knowing that if the boss did not get this kid it

would be my head. I could smell someone up stairs but I knew it was not her. Something then smelled strongly like

smoke and I knew it was the kid. I ran at vampire speed down the stairs and saw a small figure covered in a blanket

lying on the couch. I saw this girl who was not beautiful even for as human but was just merely there. I flipped the

blanket off of her and saw the damage that was done. She was in bad shape. She was covered in dirt, probably had a

few broken bones, and had scratches up and down her arms and on her face. Daniel had done well. I scoped her up in

my arms not caring if I hurt her. She would probably die anyway. Right when I was going to start for the stairs I heard

the door upstairs creak open. My head snapped up and I knew I had to get out because I could smell the wolves

coming. I ran up the stairs and into the family room only to be stopped by three wolves.  
**Quil's Point of View**

The three of us walked through the door. My heart was pounding so hard that I was almost sure that Sam and Seth

could here it. Claire is all right they have no reason to hurt her was what my mind kept telling me, but my heart knew

differently. Once we were a couple of steps into the family room a vampire suddenly stopped right in front of us

holding Claire in his arms. His face had shock and surprise written all over it and I knew it reflected mine. The first

thing I could think of to say was through gritted teeth "Put her over on the couch gently and move slowly." I could see

it in his eyes that he was thinking about making a run for it but change is mind quickly knowing that one vampire

against three wolves was not in his odds. He is very smart. I tried to control my anger as the leech moved slowly to the

couch and put Claire down. My panic eased a little when he put her down but he could still hurt her. I heard the door

that is in the kitchen open and heard four pairs of footprints moving toward the family room. Meanwhile the leech was

begging to Sam not to kill him and that he was just under orders, but good old Sam was just staring at him not saying

anything. When the vampire realized he was not going to get mercy he tried to run but only succeed in running right

into Jacob. "Don't you dare hurt Claire." Jacob said as he flung the vampire over his shoulder and swiftly walked

outside. Seconds later we heard ripping sounds and a howl. Seconds later Jacob came back inside with a huge grin on

his face. "Wow that was awesome." He said sitting down on the armchair in the corner. Everyone's head turned to

Jacob and they all rolled there eyes silently at him. But instead of my eyes going to Jacob they turned to Claire .She

was sleeping peacefully on the couch like nothing had happened. How she stayed asleep was beyond me. I looked at

her more carefully and saw strength. I saw a strength that most people don't have. A strength that let's you be

determined to do anything. Strength to never be depressed or frustrated just because things don't go your way. And

when I looked at her I saw that strength and that was the most beautiful thing of all. Sam saw me staring at her and

motioned for us to go outside. "Okay we have a problem." No really I thought happy that no one could hear my

thoughts. "Apparently this vampire was going after Claire. We don't know why but we do have to protect her. Always

keep an eye on her and one of you always has to be with her. Even when she is outside follow her as a wolf got it." He

said and we all nodded. I can't believe that he actually thought no one would be around her for long periods of time

because I would always be there. "Okay, good job guys. Go home and sleep." I had no choice but to go home and sleep

because Sam meant that statement as an order. I slowly walked home not wanting to be a wolf so everyone could hear

my thoughts. Even without being a wolf it only took ten minutes to walk home. I lived alone now my dad died five

years back. Sometimes I really miss him. I only had the energy to get to the nearest couch and collapsed against it.

Falling asleep instantly.

**Claire's Point of View ** **12:00 In the Afternoon **

I woke up looking at a dull white ceiling. I looked at the clock next to me and saw that it was already twelve. I heard

rain pounding on the roof and someone moving around in the kitchen. I knew that I was in Emily and Sams house

because there was no where else I could be. Unless I was kidnapped in the middle of the night and was now living with

my second cousin twice removed but that was very unlikely. I sat up testing how well I felt. My ribs ached my head

was throbbing; I looked down and saw that my ankle was now swollen and my whole top of my back stung when I

even breathed. My whole body was covered in sweat because I had nightmares all night about my family dieing. In my

dreams I just saw them standing just inside our house that was in flames. That's all they did. They just stood there

staring at me blaming me and at the same time being consumed by flames. The dream stopped when the whole house

was in ashes including my family. That's when I woke up. I was freezing and shivering but also warm at the same.

While shivering I decided I should get up because it might make me feel better. Boy was I wrong. I stood up and

immediately fell over on to the floor with a thud. My head was swimming and my vision was all blurry. I stayed there

on the floor clutching my head until the feeling slowly went away. I got to my feet slowly and felt okay enough to

walk. I made my way to the kitchen limping because every step I took with my right foot would send a shot of pain up

my leg. I opened the door to the kitchen and saw my aunt Emily cooking eggs and toast. She turned her head and

looked at me when she heard me come in the door. "Oh, hi sweetie. How do you feel? Do you want some scrambled

eggs?" She said with a smile. I liked her from that moment on. She seemed like a very easy person to get along with

and she seemed like she never sat still for five minutes. I needed someone like that because all of a sudden I'll get

spastic energy and have to move. I nodded and she loaded up a plate with some eggs and a piece of toast. "Let me look

at you." She said as she gently moved some of my hair away from face and she looked into my eyes. "Wow, your really

pretty." She said and I could feel my face going all red and Emily saw and started laughing. I started laughing along

with her because I swear he laugh is contiguous. When our laughing fit was over she looked down at my ankle and

gasped." Oh my god Claire. Your ankle did they give you crutches or anything." I just shook my head a little

embarrassed that she was giving me so much attention. She walked over to one of the cupboards and started shuffling

around for something. Finally she found it and I saw it was my best friend at the moment, medical tape. She bent down

and started rapping medical tape around and around gently but tightly. I was already done with my eggs by the time she

finished. I was always a fast eater. Emily took my plate and asked "Do you want a shower." "That would be nice." I

replied to her and she seemed thankful that I actually said something. When meeting new people I was the shyest most

awkward person who has ever walked the planet but once I got to know them I was still shy but not as shy if you know

what I am saying. I got up from the chair and attempted to walk but aunt Emily was suddenly by my side and

supporting most of my weight. "There ya go Claire. Just put all your weight on me." With her help we made it up the

stairs and into the bathroom. I leaned against the counter as she filled up the tub. I tried to help her but she just kept

insisting that she did it for me. After she had filled up the tub and got some shampoo she said as she was closing the

door "I have some clothes that might fit you I'll be right back but go ahead and get in the tub." Taking her instructions I

climbed into the warm water and it felt amazing. If you have not taken a real shower in about a week you know how

this feels. I closed my eyes and let myself relax wondering how Emily would find clothes that fit me her being about

five inches taller then me. But then again she was a normal height and I was just stupidly short only being five feet tall.

I heard the door open and I opened my eyes. I saw Emily put some clothes on the counter and before leaving she said

"Call me if you need anything." I relaxed for a total of 20 minutes and then out of the blue I had a panic attack. I started

hyperventling, I could feel my pulse in my neck, and I knew that I was going to throw up. I climbed out of the tub and

threw up into the toilet. I made a mental note to myself not to eat anything for a couple days because it might make me

feel better. I weakly climbed back into the tub feeling very tired. I felt like I could never move again. My arms and legs

felt like noodles. I rinsed off and got out of the tub. Luckily the medical tape was water proof so it did not come off. I

changed into a plain dark green t shirt that was about three sizes to big but that was perfectly fine with me. All my

clothes that I had at home were to big for me anyway. Emily gave me jeans that were about two sizes to big but in some

ways I did not want anyone to see me because I was so beat up. I opened the bathroom and let all the steam out into the

hall way. I wondered through the rest of the house there was only two bedrooms. One I guessed was Sam's and Emily's

and the other one was probably. I picked a room and it was Sam's and Emily's. It was a nice shade of light green but

had a bit too many flowers on the bedspread and on the border for my taste. I went to the other room and there was

bunk beds and the walls were painted a vibrant orange and in a bed was a boy maybe a year or two younger then me. I

quietly closed the door. I would sleep on the couch which was perfectly fine with me. I found my way back to the stairs

that go into the kitchen but on the top of the stairs I heard a lot of voices. I hesitated going down the stairs but then I

realized that I might as well get it over with. I half limped and half walked down the stairs as quietly on the way down I

heard thing like" Wow these are the best cookies ever." I heard some woman voices so I knew that there was not only

guys down there which is a huge relief. I got down the stairs and everyone was to busy eating to notice me. I tucked my

self into the corner that was next to me hoping that no one would notice me. I looked around at all the people every one

of the guys and one girl were about the size of Sam. There were a couple girls that were normal sized scattered around

the room .And every single one of them was with one of the guys that were huge. What's up with that? I watched for a

while but then the most unlucky thing happened. Why does it all happen to me? I have no idea. Guess what my cell

phone went off. So all of a sudden the Song "Lithium" by Evanescence burst in the room. Everyone found the source of

the sound fast enough and everyone was looking at me. Wow this was awkward. A girl that was only an inch or two

taller then me was the first to react. She had kind features and fair blondish brown hair. She practically ran over to me

and gave me a huge hug and to make matters worse she started saying the worst possible thing. "I am so sorry about

what happened. I was so sad when I found out." I have never been a huger of people I have never met before and I

knew I had the-who-the-heck-are-you look on my face and I could feel it turning all red. She was squeezing so hard

that my ribs started shooting pain up my side. She finally let go with a smile and said "Hi I'm Kim." I did a small smile

back but I was a little freaked out. "Well you met Kim." Said Emily from across the room. The whole room stayed in

awkward silence for a moment until Emily started pointing to people saying " this is Paul, Leah, Seth, Jacob, Erica,

Lily, Embry, Jared and last but not least Quil." I saw someone who was probably 17 or 18 with deep blue eyes the I got

lost in. Time flew by as we got lost in each others eyes. I could feel other people looking at us with smiles on there

faces. Emily finally broke our staring by saying "Claire we are going to have to go shopping because those clothes don't

fit." "Oh, no it's okay there fine." "Claire I can't even see you in those clothes." Emily said in a very stern voice. I could

tell that she could easily get what she wants by being a little stern. I just nodded in response. "Okay, then I will show

you your room. Come with me." She took my hand and whisked up stairs while I tried my hardest not to limp. I went

up the stairs and thought about this guy called Quil the whole way up.

**That was the longest chapter that I have ever written in my life. This chapter has the potentional to be a bit confusing. So if you have any questions what so ever review and I will answer your questions. I swear if you ask four million questions I will not get annoyed. I tired a new format once again so if you like it say so. This time I want 4 reviews before I update. I cannot promise when I will update again but I swear it will not be three weeks before I update. Special thanks to anyone who reviewed on the last chapter and thanks to anyone who reads this story. Thanks**

**-Sky and Stars **


	8. Chapter 8

Burning Chapter 8

Burning Chapter 8

Claire's Point of View

I climbed mindlessly after Emily up the stairs, I could feel my legs moving up and

down as we turned down a hallway but my mind was elsewhere. I could not stop thinking

about Quil. He seemed really nice…. Oh my gosh what am I thinking the guy never said

anything to me. And anyway he's like 20 or 30 years older then you. I was cut off when I

ran into something and fell to the ground. For a couple seconds I just laid there staring at

the ceiling wondering why this kind of thing happens to me all the time. Then I looked

over and saw that Emily too was sitting on the ground looking at me with amusement in

her eyes. Only then did I connect the dots. I had just ran into Emily. I sat up really fast

and ignoring the head rush started apologizing. "Oh my gosh I am so sorry. I didn't try

to……" I was cut off when she started laughing at me. And to my extreme

embarrassment I felt my face flame red which only caused her to laugh harder. After she

had calmed down and we were both standing up I realized that we were at the dead end

hallway. I looked around but saw no doors leading to any rooms anywhere. Only when

Emily pulled on a string from above and stairs came down did I realize that I was

sleeping in the attic. "Come on" Emily said taking my hand and pulling me up the small

rickety stairs. On the way up she said "Be Careful no one has been up here for a good ten

years." She said as we got to a small landing that was so small that we had to crawl on the

floor until we got to another set of stairs that winded up further into the house. "We never

had this place inspected" She said "so be careful because some of the wood might be bad

and it would not be that fun if you fell through two stories of ceiling." She said as we

started up the winding staircase. In a strange way I felt like I owned a castle and was a

princess as Emily and I walked up the stairway. But everyone always said that I had an

overactive imagination. Once we got to the top I finally saw my room and it was

beautiful. Sure it had tons of stuff packed up in boxes scattered around the floor but I still

loved it. I looked around and saw that it had a circle shaped window above the bed that

was just big enough to let the rare afternoon sun in. The bed had about four million

pillows on it and had a nice clean white bedspread on it that was so huge and comfortable

looking that I had to refrain my self to go jump on it. It had a black frame and it was

queen size. I looked up and saw that the ceilings were not necessarily that high but it had

a good three feet above my head. "Do you like it?" Emily asked. I was speechless I loved

it. So instead of just saying yes I turned around and gave her a huge hug. I tried to put

thanks for everything that she was doing for me in it and I think she got the message. She

hugged me back and it felt like a mom's hug. Not one that my mom ever gave me. Mom.

How could I not think about my family? What is wrong with me don't I even miss them?

These thoughts put tears in my eyes and soon they were rolling down my face behind

Emily's back. She pulled away from me and just stared into my crying eyes and said "Oh

sweetie I am so sorry." She pulled me over to the bed and for awhile we just laid there as

she silently hugged me and stroked my hair. After I had finally calmed down and wiped

the tears off my face I said "Sorry." "It's okay Claire. It's okay" She said looking me right

in the eyes so I knew that she really meant it. "I've done more embarrassing crying

moments then that. One time Sam and I went to the Movies and it was really sad. I started

crying my eyes out and I could not shut up even while Sam was hugging me. Everyone

was looking at me and that was a pretty bad moment." I looked at her and both of us

started cracking up. Soon I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt and I could not

breathe. Once we stopped laughing she asked me if I wanted to look at some old stuff

with her and of course I agreed. I love looking at other people's old stuff and pictures. I

moved to go help her go get some boxes from across the room but she told me to stay put

because she did not want me to walk to much on my ankle. She grabbed a box and hulled

it across the room and on to the bed with a groan. "Oh some old picture albums." And

that started our four hours of looking through stuff in the attic/ my room. We looked

through the albums while Emily said" This was when Sam and I" or" This was when we"

or "this was when I" or "this was when Sam and the guys" and the list goes on and on.

After we looked through most of the pictures Emily found a stuffed animal that Sam gave

her and we looked through old yearbooks. We spent another twenty minutes looking at

people's bad hair cuts and dorky pictures. A few boxes later we found Emily's wedding

dress. It was beautiful. It was plain white silk that went straight all the way to the ground,

was strapless and had small flowers lining the top. Only then did we notice it that the sun

was going down so our light supply was going away also. "Come on lets go put all this

stuff back." We put all the stuff inside their boxes and then we decided that we would

have to look through them all so we might as well start a looked at pile and a not looked

at pile. As we were walking to the door all of a sudden my ribs started hurting so bad that

it felt like my whole stomach got cut open. I doubled over, falling to my knees, putting

my forehead on the ground, and wrapping my arms around my stomach. I heard footsteps

running toward me and Emily chanting "what's wrong can I do anything." I just shook my

and felt tears building up inside my eyes. Slowly the pain subsided into a dull ache and I

was able to stand up again. I looked over at Emily's terrified face and realized that she

really did care. "I'm fine. It's just my ribs." She gave the are you sure that you are okay

look but really I was fine…. kind of. We walked to the door and I noticed that Emily

stayed closer to me then before just to make sure I was all right which was something I

could get used to. We got to the door to the stairway and after struggling for a couple of

minutes we came up with the conclusion that the door was locked. "Well at lest we have

a bathroom." I said quietly still shy after she had just shown her whole life to me. "Yeah I

guess." Replied Emily. We stood there looking at each other for a second then suddenly

Emily turned around and gave a yelp of excitement. I watched her scurry to one of the

walls and start hulling boxes to away. "Claire come help." She called over to me. We

lifted and dragged about 10 more boxes until we saw a whole in the wall. "Are we going

through that?" I asked with a bewildered expression "Yup. When we moved in Sam and I

decided to go through the whole and it led to the shed out side. But when we did it it was

not raining. So this might get a little messy because the path goes under the ground."

Emily climbed into the whole first and I followed after her. We were on our stomachs

because if we stood up our heads would probably go through the ceiling. I could tell that

we were still inside the house somewhere because I could hear people's voices so we

were probably close to the kitchen. I could also tell because we were surrounded by

pieces of wood. We went through millions off cobwebs, saw tons of huge spiders, a

couple rats and even a dead bird until we finally got out of the house. Then it got even

worse we were crawling through tons of mud and bugs. I could feel the mud covering

every inch of my body. We finally got out and found ourselves just like Emily had said In

the shed outside. We looked at each other both of us had mud covering every inch of us I

think I actually had some in my teeth. Even thought we looked terrible we could not stop

laughing. So laugh we did as we ran through the backyard, through the garden and onto

the porch in front of the house. Without hesitating Emily opened the door and we saw

about 15 people looking at us. I felt my whole face turn red but I bet that no one could

see it with all the mud on my face. "Hi guys." Emily said cheerfully not daunted at all the

people staring at us while I tried my best to hide behind Emily. "Sam could you go and

get some shampoo for us?" He just nodded with a dumbfounded look on his face and

turned up the stairs to go get some shampoo. We waited awkwardly for a couple minutes

and finally people forgot about us and started doing what they were doing before. But one

person did not look away I could feel someone watching me. I quickly looked over and

saw that Quil was watching me intently. I quickly turned around and sat on the bench

facing out onto the front yard. I watched the rain poor down while I was thinking about

why I was so attracted to this guy. After I zoned out for a couple seconds Emily came

back outside with shampoo in her hand. "Come on." I followed her back into the rain and

followed her lead by dumping shampoo into my hair and cleaning the dirt off of my arms.

As soon as we were clean enough to go inside we ran out of the rain and into the house

where Sam has towels later. Ten minutes later I found myself on the porch lying on the

bench watching the rain poor down. I had some mashed potato's and a piece of chicken

next to me that I was not eating and I was shivering uncontrollably, and felt like throwing

up. I finally admit it I'm sick I thought to myself. My ankle and ribs hurt when I breathed

from moving around and I had to keep my wrist still or it would start stinging. A couple

minutes ago I was introduced to Sue Leah and Seth's mom. She seemed nice enough and

even cooked dinner for everyone today because they could not find Emily. Emily told

everyone our story and we found out that Sam was almost sick with worry because they

could not find Emily. After everyone laughed about getting locked inside a room and

having to climb through a whole to get out everyone dug into the food. That was the

moment I felt really awkward. Everyone knew where they were doing and where they

usually sit which was how I found myself out on the porch watching the rain fall down. I

was snapped back into reality when I heard footsteps coming towards me. I looked up

and saw that Quil was coming towards. "May I sit down?" He asked motioning to the

bench that currently had my legs on them. I nodded and painfully moved my legs off the

bench and he quickly sat down next to me. "Aren't you hungry?" He asked and I shook

my head and continued to stare off into the rain. We both just sat there for a moment until

Quil said "don't you just love the rain?" That made me pay attention. Most people hate

rain and always think I'm nuts because I like it. "Yeah, but everyone always thought it

was weird because I like rain so much." I whispered "Same" He replied. Neither of us

said anything else and for both of us it was fine. There were no awkward silences or even

any awkward moments but a calm quiet that neither of us seemed to feel the need to fill.

From inside the house I heard someone yell for Quill. He turned around and looked into

the house. "Claire, he said looking deeply into my eyes. Suddenly I had the strong urge to

hug him. "I know right now that you don't really know me but I want you to know that I

am always their for you okay?" I nodded and then he did the most confusing thing ever.

He kissed me on the forehead and walked back into the house. I painfully lifted my legs

back onto the bench but did not truly feel it. I was too busy wondering about Quil,

eventually while I was thinking about the mystery of Quil I feel asleep to the patter of the

falling rain.

**Hi guys, I am so sorry that I have not updated in a while my life is so crazy right now especially because school is going to end soon. Well anyway I probably had the most fun I have ever had writing this chapter. So yeah. Anyway thanks to all my readers and anyone who reviewed. This time I want four reviews before I update again. Thanks for being so patient and for reading. **

**-Sky and Stars **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has to do with Twilight. **

**Ps. I know that this chapter was pretty unbelievable and for that I am sorry. **


	9. Chapter 9

Burning Chapter Nine

Burning Chapter Nine

I was running through the forest. I knew that I have never been in the forest before but

somehow I knew it was La Plush. As I ran I felt nothing. I didn't feel air pushing through

my lungs or feel my heart beat through my body. I felt nothing what so ever it was like I

was floating and I liked it. For a while all I did was run in my through the forest. I felt

like I could run forever something I always wished I could do. I came to a small clearing

in the forest and decided to stop. Even when I stopped moving it felt like my feet weren't

touching the ground. I laid down on the slightly damp ground and stared up at the

midnight stars shining brightly. I laid there in complete peace for a couple moments until

I heard a twig snap off to the right of me. I quickly climbed to my feet and was ready to

run until I saw what broke the stick. I the darkness of the forest was a chocolate brown

wolf. I knew that I saw him before because his eyes looked familiar but I couldn't place

them. I stayed completely still as the wolf moved towards me, with caution so I would

not run. Soon his nose was almost touching my face and I reached out a hand to touch

him. His fur felt rough and smooth at the same time. He was also so warm that I could

probably hug him and would be completely warm. He let me pet him for a couple of

moments but suddenly he moved up closer to me and nudged the necklace that always

hung on my neck with his nose. Suddenly he stiffened and ran swiftly back into the

woods. I sprinted after him for some reason afraid to loose him. But he was faster then

me and got farther and farther into the distance but I could still see him. But then

suddenly I couldn't. It was like he disappeared completely. Though I could not see him I

continued to follow his trail. I got to the spot he disappeared from and saw that it was

right in front of a large cliff. Dropping my loses I walked carefully up to the edge of the

cliff and looked at the midnight black water below. With a sigh I turned around and was

shocked at what I saw. Coming out of the forest was the man who had killed my family

and had tried to kill me too. He was worse then I remembered. He seemed stronger and

his blood red eyes seemed brighter and more sinister. "Hello Claire, long time no see."

He said moving steadily forward. If I moved backwards I would fall to my death but if I

moved forward it was almost sure death as well. In the meantime he was coming closer

and closer and with one swift movement he pushed me off the cliff and into the icy black

water below. The last thing I remembered seeing was the water getting closer and closer

to me and hearing laughter in the distance.

Claire's Point of View

I woke with a start. I felt cold sweat on my back and all over my face. I quickly sat up

ignoring the pain in my ribs and found I was still outside and the rain was still pattering

down lightly from the sky. I found myself holding my wolf necklace so hard that my

palm was bleeding. Suddenly this necklace seemed very important. I heard laughter from

the inside and realized I mush have only slept for an hour or two if people were still here.

I wiped the sweat from my face and tried to look presentable as I picked up my uneaten

chicken from the ground and walked into the family room. The problem was that

everyone was in the kitchen so avoiding people was out of the question. I walked into the

kitchen with my head tilted down so no one would see how freaked out I was. I walked

through the kitchen trying not to run into people and finally I made it to the sink. I placed

my plate in the sink along with all the other dirty dishes and hopped on the counter. I saw

everyone I meat earlier and one person that I did not know. Though I knew who I was

after I saw him standing next to his father. He looked so much like Sam that it was almost

scary. They both had deep black hair (like practically everyone else) had the same black

eyes and pointed chin. Also Sam had a certain air about him like he was in charge of

everything and his son had the exact same air. I immediately knew that he was a leader

definitely not a follower. I looked around and saw Quil. My eyes locked with his and I

gave a small smile and looked away blushing slightly. I felt a little shaky from my dream

and had to clasp my hands together to keep from trembling. Suddenly Quil was next to

me looking deeply into my eyes. For some strange reason my heart beat quickened and I

felt myself blush. He hopped onto the empty counter space next to me still looking into

my eyes he took one of my shaking hands and held it in his overly big one. For a moment

he took his eyes off of mine and took his hand out of mine. I looked over and saw that my

hand had smeared blood on it and Quil's hand had blood on his too. I blushed deeply as

he wordlessly grabbed a paper towel from behind him and wrapped it around my hand.

"Why do you blush so much? You have nothing to be embarrassed about." He said with a

smile so I knew he was kidding." "Shut up" I muttered as I lightly hit his arm with my

good hand but as I did that I blushed even deeper. Then he started laughing at me and he

would not stop. When I tried to make him shut up he just laughed so hard that he was

crying and wiping tears from his eyes. When I saw that I started laughing too and I don't

know why because nothing was really funny. Soon we were both laughing so hard that

we were leaning on each other holding our stomachs with tears streaming down our

faces. Soon after that we both recovered we wiped all the salt water off our faces and saw

that everyone was staring at us like we were crazy. Quil and I just exchanged a glace and

smiled even goofier. After a couple of seconds later before I could even think about

saying it I blurted out "so were a little crazy what's your point?" After I said that

everyone looked at us and started smiling and looked away. I looked up at Quil who even

sitting down was a good 6 inches taller then me. "So what's up?" I asked. I always just

asked that to anyone because I did not know what to say to them. "Nothing you?" He

asked me and only replied with a "me either." "What time is it?" I asked him. He looked

over my head at a clock I couldn't see and said "Twelve midnight." After a couple of

awkward moments I asked him the first question that popped into my mind "so what are

you about?" I asked him and immediately wished I didn't. He probably thinks I'm and

idiot now. "Um well I work at Jake's garage." I looked over at Jake. I defiantly seemed

like the kind of person who would own a garage. "I also love to run. It's kind of obsessive

with me because I always have so much energy." I gave a small smile as I recognized a

small part of me in him. "I live by myself just down the road so if you ever need anything

just come on down and I'll help you." He was looking at me intensely and then I realized

he wanted me to answer him. I gave him a small little nod but that seemed to satisfy him.

I felt my stomach grumble and I remembered that I did not eat anything for dinner but I

was still afraid I would be sick if I ate anything. "Claire did you eat anything?" I shook

my head but quickly added in a whisper "I don't feel very good and probably shouldn't eat

anything." "Claire" he said and sounded a bit exasperated "you have to eat something."

He turned around and grabbed a half of an apple and put into my hand. I was about to

protest but then he gave me a slightly scary firm look. I nibbled on the apple as I looked

around Jared, Kim, Jacob and Erica were leaving. I looked around and also saw that Sue

and Leah had left. Also seeing this Quil jumped off the counter said bye to everyone else

and to my surprise gave me a quick hug. I swiftly turned around and just before shutting

the door after pointed his finger and said "eat". I had the strong urge to yell "dork" at him

but I restrained myself. I looked around and saw that everyone else had left and that Sam,

Emily, and their son were looking at me with smiles. Why do people do that so much? I

wondered. "Oh, Claire guess what? I found the key." She said handing me a small bronze

key. "Keep that with you at all times because I have a feeling you'll be wanting to be able

to get out of your room." I looked down at the key and saw that it was beautifully made

and I did not feel worthy to have it. Someone like me should not own beautiful things like

that. "Hi I'm Jack." He was sticking his hand out at me and I reached out my hand and

shook it. "Claire" I said. His hand was not as hot as his dads but it was getting pretty

close. "I'm gonna go sleep I don't feel so good." With that he turned around and ran up

the stairs. Deciding I should probably do the same I jumped off the counter and almost

fell over because of the pain shooting through my ankle. I leaned back and gripped the

counter so tightly that my fingers turned white. Once I felt steady again I took another

step, let go of the counter and fell drop dead over. Why did I have to be so right about

that theory? Was what I thought as I fell to the ground but a second before I reached the

ground strong arms caught me in mid air. "Oh Claire" I heard my aunt Emily say." Were

gonna have to take you back to the hospital soon." "No" I practically screamed at her.

Well you know why because you know how much I hate hospitals. "But you can't even

walk." Well could anyone really argue that point? I think not. I just crossed my arms in

Sam's arms as he carried me upstairs. Once he got to my flight of stairs he put me down

and I said "thanks" "anytime" he replied as he started walking back down the hall to his

room. "Just call us if you need anything." He said right before he disappeared into his

room. I limped my self up the stairs, crawled though that small space and hopped my way

up the spiral stair case. Once I got into my room I lit a candle put the key on my

nightstand, changed into some pajamas that Emily gave me, opened the small window,

blew out the candle and collapsed into a deep sleep.

The Next Morning

I woke up at about ten thirty in the morning but was still not ready to face the world.

After a couple rounds of Tetris on my phone I got up and took a shower in my bathroom.

This bathroom was probably nicer then the one downstairs. It had marble floors, two

sinks and a Victorian style tub in the middle. After taking extra time to change into my

clothes that Emily gave me I actually attacked my hair. Then I merical happened. I

combed my hair. I practically washed my hair with conditioner and now only with a few

struggles I could comb through it pretty easily. Once I finished combing my hair it just

looked like a giant fur ball. But even so I kept my hair down. I took my key with me and

on my way to the kitchen heard voices talking in low voices. "He's gonna change in the

next couple of days." I heard Sam say with a tone of regret in his voice. "But at twelve

that's almost unheard of." My heart fluttered when I realized it was Quil. A couple

arguments broke out all guy voices and realized that all the guys and Leah who were here

last night. "Well I guess we can't worry about it until it happens we have other problems

to discuss." When he started all the arguments suddenly stopped immediately which I

thought was kind of weird. "Claire" was the only word he said but even from a couple

feet away I could feel everyone sit up straighter and I could even here my self listening

more clearly. "Paul, Jared any more leads?" Sam asked. "Not yet there have not been any

more trails since that night." I heard someone sigh a huge sigh of relief and Sam said

"don't get to relaxed Quil it's only the beginning." That was at the point that I got really

confused. Did he really care about me that much? I was tempted to go run to him sit on

his lap and give him a huge hug not caring about the consequences but I didn't.

"Remember how she was screaming in her sleep last night." Sam said that's when I

remembered my horrible dream last night and I shuttered just thinking about it. "That

means that this is affecting her just as much and more then us. We need to help her

because she's terrified." Well I guess that's true I admitted to myself. "and to protect her"

Sam continued "I think we need to tell her our secret." "NO" I heard and was scared

when I realized it was Quil. "Quil just calm do…." He was cut of by Quil "She's just a

child. She shouldn't know this especially after everything she's been through. Can't you

see it in her. Her eyes look so sad but I can't do anything about it and it would just

confuse her more if she found out about us." "Quil this will protect her we can help her

and it's our job to protect don't forget that. This is the only way to help her because I can't

let her be terrified knowing that these bloodsuckers killed her family and are trying to kill

her right now. Do you see how hurt she is physically she can barley walk we can't let her

get hurt anymore…" I knew that they continued to keep arguing but I didn't hear any

thing else and didn't want to as I stumbled up the stairs processing what I just learned.

Everyone knew that someone was trying to kill me. They were trying to help me. But

could I trust them? I had no idea I guess I will just have to find out for myself. But what

is this big secret that want to tell me? And what's a bloodsucker? I racked my brain for

the place I've heard that term from as I laid down on my bed. Suddenly I remembered. I

read this book about a vampires and werewolf war.

In the book the werewolf's always called the vampires bloodsuckers. Could I really be

dealing with vampires? Well it would explain the red eyes and how the creature could

move so fast. Then wouldn't Sam and everybody have to be a werewolf? But that couldn't

be werewolf's didn't exist. Or did they? Okay I see two possibilities right now I thought to

myself. Either werewolf's really did exist or I was jumping to conclusions and being the

biggest idiot that ever walked the planet. Well it's not like you could walk right up to

them and say "hello I think you're a werewolf would you tell me if I'm right or not." If I

was wrong they would probably send me to the nearest shrink possible. After collecting

myself for an hour or two I headed down stairs with the thinking that I would find out

soon enough and I shouldn't pry for answers. I headed down the stairs and now I heard a

woman voice that was not Leah's so I knew that it was safe to come down. I headed down

the stairs and quickly dismissed the idea of food. I walked into the kitchen and once again

everyone was here. Did these people have homes? But then I noticed that Quil was no

longer here and my heart sank. I tucked myself into a corner but I did not escape the

notice of Emily. "Claire just to let you know we are going shopping today." I felt my face

even fall farther into the floor so that I was practically in the underworld. "Oh and some

stuff came from your school today." She said as she pointed to the nearest envelope near

my arm. I hopped onto the counter and opened the envelope. It had some certificates and

medals from orchestra and stuff like that. Then I saw my report card. I got four A's and 2

B's not bad. With my report card were some notes from teachers telling me how sorry

that they were and stuff like that. I just glanced over them. Why should they be sorry they

didn't do anything? I put all the stuff in the envelope with a sigh and put the envelope

back onto the counter. I felt sad about that leaving that school for some reason that I

could not place. "Ready Claire" I heard Emily say as she was putting on some shoes.

"More or less I guess." I replied

On the way to the mall in Seattle there was only silence except for the radio and

occasionally Emily would sing softly with a song that she liked. Once we were less then

ten minutes away Emily started asking me questions about what kind of clothes I liked. I

told her I hate pink and I have to wear mostly dark or bright colors no pastels. Also all

my clothes had to be conferrable and easy to move in and under no circumstances would

I wear a dress or a skirt. She told me she had the same style I did when she was my age

and I felt a lot better about the whole thing. Once we were inside the shopping center that

I despised already because I hate shopping at anywhere that wasn't Target. Emily pulled

me to a department store. We were looking through the racks finding some nice things to

try on here or there but for some reason it felt like I was being watched. I would feel

something watching then I would turn quickly around but nothing would be there. Once I

turned my head around so quickly that I heard my neck crack and I think Emily was

starting to think I was nuts. The whole time I felt that we had to leave now and fast. Once

I had tried everything on I got two pairs of jeans and four t shirts exactly what I wanted.

But as we were going to the front I saw a man that looked freakily like the man or

possible vampire that was browsing the racks in the men's department. He was deathly

pale and had brown hair. It occurred to me that they would try to kill me when I was

alone and all I had to do was to stay with someone. But would that concept work with

vampires? I gripped my hands together to keep from shaking as I tried to walk calmly by

the person who wanted to kill me. I thought I might pass out as I walked past him. I got

past him and all he did was stare at the clothes in front of him like he was interested in

buying it. I looked back and saw him turn towards me look me straight in the eye with his

deep red eyes. And just like that he was gone. I felt myself start to panic. I felt my

stomach start to turn and my hands started shaking my face got really hot. "Emily I don't

feel well I'll be outside." With out waiting for her answer I sprinted out the door ignoring

the crazy looks I got from all the people. I continued running until I turned the corner to

the side of the building and then I stopped and tried to collect my self. I just paced back

and forth with my hands on my head and my eyes closed. During this time I got very

close to being sick and started gagging. I sat on the ground and eventually the shaking

started to stop and my stomach felt a little better but I still had the chance that I could

throw up. I walked around the corner and saw that Emily was standing outside the

department store with a bag in her hands looking for me. She started to walk towards me

with a worried look as I approached her. "Hey, sweetie you okay?" She said and all I was

able to manage was a small head nod. "Well if we have to stop on the way home just tell

me." And indeed we did have to stop twice for me to throw up in the woods. And buy the

time we got back I knew that I was defiantly sick and looked like a train wreck. Just as

we were pulling up to the drive way my cell phone rang. I looked to see who was calling

but saw it was my mom's number. How is that possible? She's dead. I felt my self turn

green and I heard Emily say " hold on Claire were almost back." It was still ringing as

we got out of the car and I decided that I should probably answer it and it was just one of

my friends playing a prank. "Hello" I said into the phone. "Hello Claire." It was the man.

I reached out to the mirror as Emily went to the back. "I'm watching you Claire." I felt

myself look around at the forest all around us looking for the person that is watching me.

"Stop looking Claire you'll never see me." My hand tuned white from holding on the

mirror so tightly. "In the distance I could hear Emily saying my name in a frantic tone but

I could no longer hear her "Just know that I will always be watching you were ever you

go." I no longer heard Emily saying anything. My vision became all foggy and my

hearing disappeared all together. All I could see was Emily waving her hands looking

straight at me and saying something that I could not hear. "I will kill you at the time you

least expect so be ready, bye Claire and good luck." Emily was now shaking my

shoulders but I could not feel it and I felt my self turn cold and felt the heat wash off my

face. Then I was falling. And I remember nothing else.

**Guys I really need these questions answered before I update again. I need your guys opinions about something so ****Please read the authors note. **

**The first question I have is **

**Do you guys think that there should be a funeral for Claire's family or not? **

**Also **

**Claire and Quill's relationship is really awkward right now and I don't really know how to make it past that stage so any suggestions would be really nice because I can't update until I have the answers. **

**Well anyway sorry for practically yelling at you but I wanted to get your attention. I want three reviews before I updated again but more are welcome. Really review you guys because it inspires me to update faster. Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. **

**Thanks **

**Sky and Stars.**


	10. Chapter 10

Burning Chapter Ten

Burning Chapter Ten

Emily's Point of View

On the way home Claire looked horrible. Her face was pale and her eyes looked hollow with fear but

what was wrong? I knew her well enough to know that I shouldn't ask her what was scaring her so much

because I knew she wouldn't tell me. On the way home she said nothing what so ever but I kept my eyes on her

and it was a good thing I did. Twice she started gagging and I stopped the car quickly on the side of the road

while she jumped out of the car. Once we were about five minutes some of the color in her face was coming

back which was a good sign. But once we got closer and closer she looked sicker and sicker and I knew she was

going to throw up. "Hold on Claire we're almost back" I said trying to reassure her. We turned onto the

driveway when suddenly Claire's cell phone started ringing for some reason I wanted to tell her not to answer it

because I felt it in my bones that something bad was going to happen. But before I could tell her she was out the

door with her cell phone to her ear. I went around to the trunk to get the clothes and saw that Claire was rooted

to where she stood. She was even paler then before and her hair was plastered to her face and her hand was

white from clamping on so hard to the side mirror. Immediately I knew something was wrong and threw the

bags to the ground and rushed over to Claire who didn't even seem to notice that I was there. She quickly

looked around the forest with frantic eyes but quickly stopped when someone said something on the phone. I

grabbed on to Claire's shoulders and bent down to her eye level frantically calling her name but she wasn't

responding. I even started shaking her shoulders but she was just staring blankly into space. I noticed that she

was freezing and suddenly her eyes closed and her body went limp falling backward. Before she hit the ground I

caught her in my arms and picked her up; her cell phone still in her hands but the line was dead. During this it

had started sprinkling so I ran as fast as I could carrying Claire to the back door that led to the kitchen. I set

Claire on her feet once we got to the porch and let her lean against me while I knocked on the door frantically.

There was no way I could get the door open with Claire unconscious. I put my ears near Claire's mouth and

heard air rush in and rush out which was a huge relief. I knocked on the door again and hit Sam when I did not

notice that the door open. Right when I was about to say sorry he asked in a very stern voice "What happened?"

As he swooped Claire up in his arms I told the whole story when he walked into the kitchen and laid her

unconscious form on the table which I had no objections over. As I told him the story I saw his face slip into a

frown in deep concentration. That's when I knew that Sam was keeping something from me, something serious.

Was it something that could protect me or hurt me? But I knew it had to do with Claire. "Sam what's going on?"

I asked coming closer to him snapping him out of it. He sighed but I knew that he was not frustrated with me

but frustrated with something else entirely. Instead of answering my question he gave me a kiss on my forehead,

rapped his arms around me pulling me to him and put his head on the top of my head. "Emily I love you but I

can't tell you yet because I should probably tell everyone else at the same time." I nodded into his chest

consumed in his heat that I was now use to knowing that everyone else was all the imprints. We held this

position for a while only until Sam said that he was going to call everyone to come over and said that I should

watch over Claire. I held her hand the whole time that Sam was making calls. He called Lily and Seth first

because Lily was a doctor telling them to call a couple people before they came over. He called Quil next and

told her about Claire. Less then a minute later Quil barged into our house and ran over to Claire.

Quil's Point of View

I was at home watching T.V wondering when Claire was going to get back. I laughed out loud when I

remembered the look on her face when Emily said that they were going shopping. That' s when I got the call.

Sam told me what happened and tried to reassure me but once I heard that Claire was hurt not bothering to hang

up the phone or turn of the T.V I sprinted the quarter mile to Sam and Emily's house. Once I saw their face I

actually felt a little tired because I was running so fast. I barged into their house not bothering to knock and saw

Claire lying on the table unconscious. I ran to her ignoring the shocked look on Emily's face and fighting back

tears. I picked her off the table gingerly careful not to hurt her and sat down in the nearest chair. I leaned her

head against my shoulder so the rest of her was curled up in a ball leaning against my chest. I could hear her

breath come in and out of her mouth and her heart beating in a slow steady rhythm. I hugged her closer to my

chest stroking her hair oblivious to everything else but her. That was when I fully realized how small she really

is. I knew that she was always on the small side but I didn't think she was this small and fragile, so small that

she could fit on my lap. Maybe it was the baggy clothes she wear's? I looked down on her face and saw how

fragile she can be. So far she has come off very tough not really needing anyone as tough as diamonds but I

realized how venerable and soft she could be. As soft as silk. I realized that contrast was on of the reasons she

fascinated me so much and why I was completely in love with her. I tore my eyes away from her and asked

Emily what happened. Sam only said that she fainted so I didn't really know what happened. Emily only said

that Sam would tell everyone everything when everyone got here. I nodded knowing that Emily was about to

find out about the vampires trying to kill Claire. After she said that Sam got off the phone with a frown and sat

down next to Emily and pulled her on top of him where she leaned against his chest and he put his head on top

of hers very similar to what I was doing with Claire. That kind of freaked me out for a moment. I knew for a

fact that neither Claire nor I was ready for a sexual relationship I don't even want to kiss her yet I just want to

hug her, hold her, get to know her, and be her best friend that's all I want right now. I considered putting her

back on the table but I still couldn't will myself to do it. Seconds later Seth and Lily arrived Lily with her

medical bag. She looked around for Claire with fiery determination in her eyes and found her sitting in my lap.

She walked swiftly over to us Seth following, put her medical bag and bent down to Claire's eye level. She

turned to Emily and asked how long she had been unconscious and she answered fifteen minutes. Funny it

seemed longer then that. She asked me to tilt her face up towards her and once I did opened her eyelids and

shined a flashlight in her eyes. "Well" she said standing up "she's fine just unconscious and will probably wake

up in about 5 to 10 hours unless you want to use smelling salts" she asked. Sam and I both said no at the same

time but my no was a little more frantic, emotional and loud then his. But even though I said no I wasn't sure if I

could wait a 5 or ten hours to have her conscious again but I did not want Lily to use smelling salts because

with out a doubt that would be unpleasant. At that second Jacob and Erica walked through the door both with

worried expressions. "Hey Quil" he said raising one hand in greeting "is she okay?" "Yeah she's fine." I

answered hoping it were actually true. "Good, don't loose her Quil." He said walking to the counter where Erica

was already sitting and sat next to her. Then Collin and Brady came and never met Claire before because they

lived on the outskirts of La Plush but still knew what was happening because of phasing and mind reading.

Soon the whole entire pack was here including Billy and Sue and everyone's imprints. After giving people a

moment to catch up with one another Sam picked Emily off of him kissed her on the forehead and went to stand

at the head of the room. Immediately everyone went quiet. "Lily will Claire be able to hear anything that we

say" without saying anything she just shook her head "good then she can say." Sam said looking at me as did

everyone else and I know that Claire's face would be bright red right now and it made me smile. "Okay then"

Sam said turning to face the room. Then Sam launched into the whole story of how Claire is being hunted by

vampires and how they attacked her once the night she got here and how we have to protect her. Then Emily

unfazed by Claire being hunted by a vampire told her story. When he was done all the girls and Billy just stared

at him with you have got to be kidding me looks. And the whole time that Sam was telling the story Claire

remained unconscious. After a couple seconds of awkwardly staring at each other Emily's expression turned

thoughtful. Then she turned to Sam and asked "but why are you telling us this now?" "Well I think that you

guys could help protect Claire. I want someone to be with her at all times and I think that Claire will probably

bond stronger with you guys instead of any of us and this includes you Leah." Sam said looking at Leah

"Still" Lily said "how could we protect her it's not like we can beat up a vampire." "True but for us to protect

Claire she needs to be able to confide in what is happening because of right now she thinks that we have no idea

what's going on. And so I want you guys to be able to earn her trust so that she will confide in her. But that

includes everyone okay so I want everyone to attempt to earn her trust." Sam said looking everyone in the eyes.

"Sure that shouldn't be to hard" Collin said and I had to scoff at that. "Guys that is going to be a lot harder then

it sounds." I said looking at everyone "she is the shyest person that I have ever met in my life and I don't think

she has ever trusted anyone completely in her life. I don't think that she even trusts me enough to tell me about

this." Before anyone could react to what I said Emily said "wait is a vampire the reason that Claire fainted?" "I

think so" replied Sam. Why didn't they tell me this before? I should have been there. I looked around and saw

that everyone was staring at Sam with confused looks on there faces so I looked at him too. "I think that

because when Claire was with Emily today" Sam said now addressing everyone. "Emily said that Claire got

really pale and kind of freaked out and she might have freaked out because she saw a vampire." "But how

would that explain why she fainted?" Jacob asked. "What if the vampire somehow was able to make contact

with her" Sam said but still none of us were following his train of thought "by calling her." Then "oh" s and

gasp's went through the room everyone suddenly understanding. "But what if we' re completely wrong and a

vampire had nothing to do with Claire fainting?" "Then were back to square one" Sam replied. I looked in

Claire's hand and saw that her cell phone was still on and the number that called her was still on the screen. That

means that you can listen to the previous conversation. **A/N I know that you can't do this on phones right **

**now but remember that this is story would take place a couple years in the future so with out a doubt in **

**the future you will be able to listen to past conversations that you had. Sorry on with the story. **

I gently took the phone out of Claire's hand and slid it to Emily. "Put the last conversation on speaker phone."

Then we listened to the whole conversation that Claire had with the bloodsucker and as I listened I felt like I

was going to be sick and I didn't blame Claire for fainting. When the vampire stopped talking and the line went

dead we all stared at each other with wide eyes and everything seemed unnaturally still. The first one to react

was Erica. "Is there anyway to track the phone who called Claire?" After tinkering on the phone for a couple

moments Emily said "No they used an untraceable phone." "But why would they want her?" Jared asked. "I

don't know" Sam answered honestly "but I intend to find out." After he said that there was a silence that no one

really needed to fill. But in that silence Claire murmured "vampire" and cuddled closer into my chest. My first

thought that I accidentally said out loud was "how does she know?"

**So what did you guys think? Sorry it was kind of a boring chapter and sorry it's kind of short but I'm probably going to update in the next three days. I want three reviews before I update again but more are always welcome. Thanks to all the people that answered my questions you guys rock and you helped a lot. And also thanks to all my readers. **

**-Sky and Stars **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight **


	11. Chapter 11

Burning Chapter 11

Burning Chapter 11

Claire's Point of View

There was a buzzing sound in my head as I regained my consciousness. It was so loud

that it sounded like I had a bee hive in my head. I opened my eyes and slowly the blurry

world came back into view and I found that I was looking at a white ceiling but not the

one from the living room at home. Where am I? I lifted my head ignoring the throbbing

pain and looked around the room. The first thing I noticed was a door at the top of a

staircase, then I saw small windows on the top of the walls and realized that this must be

the basement. Then I saw someone sitting clearly asleep in the armchair next to the couch

I was lying on. It was too dark to realize who it was at first and after having a panic

attack thinking it was the crazy stalking vampire I realized it was Quil. I propped myself

up on my arm and looked at Quil. He looked so much calmer in sleep. But then again

doesn't everyone look calm in sleep? Unless you're having a nightmare? That was the

first time I really looked at him and I noticed his strong and sure jaw line, the curve of his

face and how his hair which was a little shaggy flapped in his eyes a little bit and then I

realized how handsome he really is. I had the feeling that I had to go and sit in his lap and

hug him but I resisted myself and instead made my slow way up the stairs and out the

door where I found myself in the kitchen. I looked at the clock on the kitchen and saw

that it was one in the morning. Ugh I would have to wait seven hours or more until

everyone else got up and it's not like I can watch T.V or anything with out waking up the

whole house. I got a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. I stayed leaning

over the sink sipping the water probably looking like someone who is very interested in a

football game but I didn't care. I was rather surprised that I wasn't having a mental

breakdown because that guy called me. They say that when your sleeping or unconscious

your mind still works so maybe that's why I'm so calm because I might have freaked out

for a couple hours with out even knowing it. But the thing that was bothering me the most

was that the voice sounded so familiar but I couldn't place it. When I was wondering who

the voice belonged to someone put their hand on my shoulder. I yelped, jumped up in the

air and almost dropped the glass then I saw it was Quil and felt like a huge idiot. He had a

grin on his face as he looked down at me. "Sorry" he said in a whisper probably because I

had just woken up the whole house with my scream. I could feel my heart beat even

harder then when I was scared but then I realized that my heart was beating faster

because Quil and I mentally slapped myself. This is Quil for crying out loud. He just

thinks of me as a little kid and the only reason that he hangs out with me is because of

pity for me and I was just being and idiot because I actually liked him. Oh god I've only

known him for about two days tops and I already like him but only as a friend I think oh

jeez now I'm really confusing myself. When I was done thoroughly confusing myself I

heard my stomach growl quite loudly and I quickly wrapped my arm around my stomach

to make it stop. But Quil just laughed and said "Hungry?" I nodded as I looked at the

floor. But then I felt a warm hand tilt my face up so that I was looking into deep brown

eyes unable to look away. "Are you all right, Claire?" I wanted to tell him everything.

That I thought that he was a wolf that a someone was stalking me and trying to kill me

and he might supposedly be a vampire and also how I liked him a lot and how for some

reason I really miss my family no matter how badly they treated me I really did miss

them and sometimes I was so sad and scared that I felt sick and like I couldn't breathe.

But I didn't tell him any of that and just said "yeah." But I knew that I couldn't keep all of

that inside me for much longer and he would be hearing about it quite soon. "What

happened?" I asked him still staring into his eyes. Staying in that position he told me how

I fainted and how Lily (who was apparently a doctor) checked me out and that I was fine.

"How long was I out?" "Six hours" wow that's a long time even beating how long I was

out when I jumped off the roof of our house because of the fire. I heard my stomach

growl again now sounding like an angry bear. "Come on let's go get something to eat."

Quil said taking my hand and gently leading me out the door but leaving a note for Sam

and Emily just in case they woke up. "Don't you want to sleep?" I asked and we went out

into the brisk night air "not really I really don't sleep that much it's a waste of time."

"Exactly do you know how much we could get done if we didn't have to sleep?" I looked

down and smiled at me clearly pleased with my response which made me happy. Quil

opened the door for me and I climbed into his pick up truck. It smelled like him. It

smelled like the forest and a camp fire just like him. He went around the back of the car

and climbed into the driver's seat. We drove down the street in silence eventually coming

on to a two story house that looked very Victorian style which was kind of odd for La

Plush. "That's my house. It's been in our family for generations and now it's mine." It had

peeling paint and the fence was broken and it looked really, really old but for some

reason I really liked it. It had a wild feeling about it and I liked that. I always liked things

that other people did not. I like things that look old and have peeling paint I always have.

The rest of the way into the small town Quil pointed out things to me like trailheads,

beaches, Jacob and Billy's house and things like that. We got to the town and he pointed

out the garage that Jacob owned and the post office and a couple small clothing stores

that were all closed now. There was only one traffic light and since there was no other

soul out here Quil just ran a red light and I just shook my head at him which made him

laugh. "Clam down Claire people do it all the time and the police don't even care because

they do it to. I couldn't help rolling my eyes. He showed me the school which looked

pretty small but that's fine with me I always thought that my old school was too big. And

finally we came across the only place open at one in the morning a small diner that said

that they were open twenty four seven. We both climbed out of the car and to my surprise

Quil took my small hand in his huge one as we walked into the diner there was no one

there except a couple of cooks playing cards and a couple waitresses gossiping. They all

stared at us as we walked through the door and I could feel myself go red. "Hi Quil" they

all chimed. As Quil greeted them all by name we walked over to the bar and sat down

and still held my hand as a waitress came over named Patti. "Hello Quil who is this?" She

asked looking at me with curiosity. "This is Claire. She came here a couple days ago."

"Claire?! Oh I am so sorry about what happened. I remember when your mom came in

here with you and you were so small and delicate. Well that's the past now I guess." She

said with a sigh as I put on a fake smile that I knew did not quite reach my eyes. "Well

what will you guys have?" Quil ordered chocolate chip pancakes and I did the same.

When Patti told the cooks (who were still wrapped up in there card game) what we

wanted they did not even respond to her. She sighed again and said "well since their not

listening I'll tell you what" she said with a grandmotherly atmosphere "you can make

them yourself and as long as you clean up you won't have to pay." Quil and I looked at

each other at the same time and had the same answer in our eyes "Sure" we said once

again at the same time. "Well okay then good luck." I followed Quil around to the kitchen

that looked way to clean. "So do you know how to make pancakes?" I asked him "Not a

clue so I guess we'll just wing it unless you know how to." I didn't either so we just stared

at each other for a couple moments wondering what we should do. Then Patti yelled from

somewhere in the restrunt "there are recipes in the top left cupboard." I was the closest so

I climbed onto the counter and grabbed the box of recipes then climbed back down to the

floor. I looked through the box and found the chocolate chip pancake one and was just

about to climb back up to put on the shelve when Quil took it out of my hands and put the

box on the shelve with out even straining. I just stared at him for the first time I had

realized how tall he was. He was at least 6 foot probably more. "Sorry if this is offensive

and you don't have to answer if you don't want to but how tall are you?" He laughed

throwing me an apron and putting one on for him "I'm 6 foot 6 inches." Whoa "How tall

are you?" "Five foot" I answered lamely I had always hated my height because I always

had to look up at everyone and everyone always said how cute I am and thought I was 10

or 11 instead of 14. He laughed a little bit but then said "Well I'm nothing compared to

Sam. He's 6-10 and Jacob is 6-9 so really I'm pretty short" I just stared at him blankly

how could he think that 6-6 is short. Snapping out of it I read the instructions and it didn't

look hard but I know that I can find someway to screw it up. I looked back over at Quil

who was getting eggs and butter and stuff out of the fridge and decided that I should start

looking for bowls. I searched through a couple of the low cupboards and eventually

found a large mixing bowl and a mixer. "Hey do you know where the flour is?" I asked

him but he just shook his head. Then we searched through all the drawers cupboards and

on the last one we checked we found the flour. We started mixing stuff together not really

sure what we were doing but doing pretty well, until I spilled water onto the floor. I was

plugging the pancake cooker thing into the socket when my elbow hit the measuring cup

filled with and crashed to the ground thankfully not breaking. I went over to get paper

towels I heard a loud bang and turning around saw that Quil was laying on the ground

next the counter. I rushed over to him faster then I really should have and as I got closer I

felt my feet leave the ground, felt my body twisting in the air and felt my body crash into

the ground but my head and most of my back landed on something soft. My eyes were

closed and when I opened them I was staring at the bottom of the counter I looked over to

see where Quil was and was shocked when I found out that I was lying on his stomach.

"Oh my gosh I am so sor…." I said as I quickly got up and was interrupted when my head

hit the counter. I rubbed my head wondering if it was bleeding or not when the bag of

flour fell off the counter and on to the floor next to me. Then we were surrounded by

white power which had both of us coughing. I opened my eyes and saw that both Quil

and I were covered with it from head to toe. I took my white hand and started wiping

flour out of my eyes so I could see clearly when Quil started laughing. He laughed and

laughed and I couldn't help but laugh too. So when Patti came running into the kitchen

wondering what was wrong she just started and us rolled her eyes and left which made us

laugh even harder. After we had calmed down a little bit I remembered that I was still

sitting on Quil. I hurriedly got up almost falling in the process feeling blood rush to my

face. "Sorry" I said as I got up. "That's okay." He said with a smile so I knew that it was

fine. "So where were we" and we proceeded with making pancakes. We got it eventually

but because we were covered with flour still we just ate them in the kitchen. They were

surprisingly pretty good and I was starving now so I would probably eat anything. I had

three huge one's and Quill ate the rest of them which was kind of disgusting. It took us

longer to clean up then it took to make them but it was still a lot of fun mostly because I

was with Quil. Once we thanked all the people in the resrunt who were not asleep yet we

walked out to the car. After a couple moments of shaking out our clothes to get the flour

off we climbed into the car. I looked at the clock which said it was three in the morning.

"Hey," Quil said as he started the car capturing my attention "Are you tired?" he asked

apparently he noticed my look at the clock and I just shook my head for an answer. I

honestly felt like I never wanted to sleep again because I have pretty much been asleep

for the last twenty four hours but I knew I would be tired later and all day. He started

driving through the small town but was surprised when he turned right instead of left.

Left was the way home and right was the way to somewhere else completely. Quil saw

my confused expression and said "there's a beach down the road and since neither of us

are tired and there's nothing to do back at Emily and Sam's house I thought we would

go." I nodded satisfied with his answer. We drove through some winding roads and Quil

started to point out other things like Kim and Jared's house. Why did everyone live so

close together here? It took us a total of five minutes to get to the beach that was

apparently called third beach from what Quil told me. Quil stopped the car and both of us

climbed out of the car walking to the water. The beach had a long pier that probably stuck

about a mile or so out onto the water with a lighthouse at the end. Once we got to sand I

took off my ratted up shoes that I have had since 4th grade and walked up to the pier.

With Quil by my side and holding my hand I didn't feel scared at all that the person

would kill me in fact I had no thoughts about that when I was with him almost like it was

erased from my mind. Almost. We got to the end of the pier and sat down with our feet

dangling off the side. We were quite far up about 20 feet or so from the water. I laid back

and looked up at the stars since the sun wouldn't come up for another hour or so. But that

hour looking up at the stars seemed to go faster then it was supposed to. And then we

were watching reds fade into pink, oranges fade into purples, and greens fade into a deep

sky blue and then there was just deep blue and a bright yellow sun. Someone once told

me that dawn was the best time to think I now that I've experienced it I think that it's true.

Both Quil and I were lost in our thoughts and when the sun finally came up and it

actually wasn't raining I had the crazy idea that I wanted to go swimming. "Hey, Quil" I

said snapping him out of his thoughts "are we allowed to swim here." Reading my

thoughts a grin came to his face that reached his eyes that made the serious look in his

eyes go away. We both stood up and I took my hair down from a ponytail letting it lay

freely down my back. I looked over and saw that Quil had taken his shirt off and I looked

away awkwardly. I walked to the side of the pier and looked down my toes off the edge. I

felt Quil touch my arm and then felt myself falling through the air until warm eyes caught

me. "Thanks" I said looking up at him kind of surprised that he would actually think of

picking me up. "Anytime" he replied looking down at me. But instead of putting me

down he jumped off the pier. I wasn't ready so I screamed and put my arms around Quil's

neck. We crashed into the water that was actually pretty warm for a place where it rains

almost constantly. Quil let go of me once we were under water and we both swam to the

top. On the way up I look down and saw how deep it was at least 60 feet down. I

continued up and saw that Quil was already up on the surface looking for me. I came up

with a gasp of breath and for a while we just smiled at each other. I have to tell you that it

is pretty odd swimming in jeans and a really baggy t-shirt. It felt like they were weighing

we down so it made it harder to swim but thankfully I was a pretty good swimmer. We

just floated around with each other for about an hour. We both tried to touch the bottom

and I only got about thirty feet down but Quil actually saw the bottom which I was pretty

amazed with but then clouds started rolling and it started getting really windy. I looked at

Quil with a worried expression and with a nod he started leading the way back to shore. I

can swim but not really fast and Quil stayed with me the whole entire way there even

though I knew he could go faster. Buy the time that I could actually touch the ground I

was dog paddling because I was so tired. We both walked warily to the shore collapsing

next to each other apparently he wasn't much of a swimmer either. After a couple minutes

of resting I said "we should go get our stuff." With that we pried ourselves off the

ground, brushed the sand off of us and started making our way up the board walk once

we were feet away from our stuff a couple of drops fell from the sky steadily getting

faster and faster until it was pouring. We ran to our stuff as I hurriedly put on my shoes

and Quil his shirt. Then we sprinted the mile back to shore. I did cross country and Track

but that was nothing compared to how fast Quil was running and I was right next to him

trying to keep up. The wind was getting stronger and stronger and the waves were now so

big that they were coming onto the board walk and that made me run even faster. We

made a bee line for the car and made it just as we saw a flash of lightning and heard a

loud rumble of thunder. We collapsed into the car I was exusted but I looked over at Quil

and saw that he was breathing completely normal. Once my breathing was normal again I

asked him "how come you're hardly breathing." He laughed and said that he was in good

shape. He turned on the heat and we sat in the car ringing out hair and clothes but even

once we stopped we still looked like we went swimming again. I looked at the sky that

now looked like a firework show because of all the lightning and looked at the pier and

saw that the waves were so big that they were flooding it. We drove back home in silence

but both of us had little smiles on our face. He stopped the car in front of the house

"ready to get out" he said taking the keys out of the car. I nodded "okay, on three. One,

two, three" we both sprinted as fast as we could to the door but even though I was going

as fast as I could go Quil still got there about five seconds faster then I did and was

holding the door open for me. I ran to the door and a couple steps into the kitchen almost

slipping because of all the water but I managed to keep my ground. I saw that Quil was

throwing away the note that he left earlier "I figure they never have to know about this." I

smiled agreeing with him. I looked at the clock and saw that it was only six thirty in the

morning and no one would be up for at least another three hours. I had a feeling that

everyone really liked to sleep in here. I shivered a little bit and told Quil I was going to

change clothes and he told me to meet him downstairs. I went up to my room and

changed into some brown cargo pants and a white t- shirt and I laid my wet clothes on to

the floor hoping they would dry before Sam did laundry. I went down stairs and headed

into the basement which took longer then it did my changing. In the basement I saw that

Quil was looking through some movies. "Hi, Claire since we can't really do anything else

I thought we could watch a movie or something." "Yeah sure you can pick I don't really

care what we watch." I grabbed the blanket from the couch that I was earlier laying

unconscious on, wrapped it around my shoulders and took a seat on the couch in front of

the T.V. We proceeded to watch this really stupid movie that I don't know title of that

was supposed to be funny but really wasn't in the middle of the movie I leaned my head

against Quil's shoulder and fell asleep.

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I woke up with a jolt to the screen door from upstairs slamming and I heard voices from

up stairs so I knew everyone was awake. I felt something soft and warm move off my

head I looked up and saw that Quil had fallen asleep too on top of my head. I noticed that

Quil was leaning against the arm rests of the couch so that I was laying on him and

leaning on his shoulder while his head was resting on mine. We quickly unfolded

ourselves both of us clearly embarrassed as we turned off the T.V and wordlessly walked

up to the kitchen. Emily was getting some food out and everyone was crowded around

her staring at her. But once we walked through the door all the attention was put on us.

"There you guys are. Claire are you okay." I nodded returning to my usual shyness. "Well

Claire we have this tradition that the last one's here in the morning make breakfast so

come on and grab an apron." She said as she threw each Quil and I one. "Do you guys

know how to make chocolate chip pancakes?" We grinned at each other and said that we

did.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next two weeks passed in a blur. I read a lot probably a book everyday or every two

days. When I wasn't with Quil I was reading. I went to the small town library about twice

a week it was only three miles away so it only took about forty five minutes to get there if

you walk. Within those two weeks Quil and I started hanging out a lot more and I

actually began to trust him a little bit which believe me is a huge step. We seemed to

have a bond with each other that I couldn't explain. It was like I had to be around him

constantly or I missed him it was pretty weird. Because I knew that I was just some

stupid little kid to him meaning nothing to him. One morning after everyone had left for

their house after breakfast and Paul had just made scrambled eggs I had so much restless

energy that I had to get out of the house. Before I left Emily told me that I had to be home

by 6 because we were going to have a campfire tonight. I nodded looking at the clock

which said it was twelve. I would be home in six hours for sure. I walked out side and for

once it wasn't raining but it looked like it was night time because the clouds were so

black. I walked down the road going places I have never gone before and successfully got

myself lost. I was trying to find my way back when I heard a twig snap behind me. I

turned around quickly and saw that one lone figure was coming out of the forest, slowly.

As he came forward I knew who he was. He was the man/ maybe vampire that had killed

my family. "Hello Claire" he said obvisoly not the voice from the phone "how have you

been." I pressed myself against the tree behind me my eyes frozen open. I saw three

other figures coming out of the forest. One of them was holding a knife one rope and one

a large bag. Coming to my senses I turned around and ran a couple steps into the forest

but only got a couple feet because suddenly I was slammed into a tree. Arms pinned to

the tree, hand covering my mouth, and a knife pressed to my throat and I was looking

into 10 deep red eyes. "You shouldn't run Claire." The one from my room said who was

the closest to me. "Because that will give us an excuse to hurt you more." The saddest

thing about this was that I truly wasn't expecting it just like what the voice on the phone

had said.

**So what did you think? Sorry I was a little late on updating it took longer then I expected to type this chapter up. I really, really, really, really, really want reviews so please, please, please, please review. I would like three or four before I update again. Thanks to all my reviews especially and also thanks to my reviewers. **

**-Sky and Stars **


	12. Chapter 12

"You shouldn't run Claire." The one from my room said who was

the closest to me. "Because that will give us an excuse to hurt you more." The saddest

thing about this was that I truly wasn't expecting it just like what the voice on the phone

had said. "Come on guys we should go the dogs are probably going to be looking for her

soon." The guy with the rope said in a disgusted tone. The guy from my room sighed

and said "I guess your right. Marley tie her up. We can play with her when we get

there." He said with a horrible smile. When he said that my heart started beating so fast

that I could swear that they could hear it. Which they probably could if they were

vampires I thought vaguely. My breath caught in my throat so that I could barley

breathe and I started hyperventilating my vision became all cloudy and I could hardly

see anything. I was having a panic attack but with everything happening I couldn't help

but wonder if I would see Quil again and it hurt to think that I wouldn't. What are you

thinking? I yelled to myself in my head Quil I already like thirty what chance to you

have with him. Whatever this is not the time to worry about this. The two guys who

were holding me pushed me roughly to the ground and since it rains in La Plush all the

time I landed in a pile of mud. It got into my mouth and I felt it in my hair and running

down my body but before I could get up someone wrenched my arms behind my back

and I felt rope being twisted around them. At the same time someone slammed my legs

together and tied them together so tight that probably after a while I would have no

blood circulurtation in my feet. Once they were done tying me up someone kicked my

side and forced me onto my back so I was staring into three sets of red eyes. So where

was the other guy? My question was answered when a second after I thought that

someone was pulling me effortlessly up to my feet but I was leaning on the guy. I really

hated leaning on this guy because his arms were fastened around my chest with is other

around my hips and I could tell that he really enjoyed my leaning on him. I really wanted

to slap him but I couldn't which was kind of the point, I guess. "Okay Claire these are

the rules no screaming, struggling, kicking, biting, ect. Or we will be forced to hurt

you." Said the guy with the knife and just for emphasis he started running the blade

across my stomach. His face was so close to mine that I could see nothing but his face.

"Is that okay with you?" he asked that horrible smile entering his face again. I nodded

quickly to scared to say anything and to my dismay the tears that I had been fighting

back finally started dripping down my face. Oh god did you really have to start crying

Claire. I screamed to myself and I suddenly wanted Quil here just to be next me even if

he couldn't do anything about this and he was tied up next to me I wouldn't care

because he would be in this with me. This thought just made the tears flow thicker.

"Good" he said to me walking away. He pointed to another man with dark long brown

hair not Marley and said "Thomas gag her." Thomas came over to me with a slim piece

of cloth in his hand and roughly put it over my mouth. It was so tight that I could barley

breathe out of my mouth and since my lungs were not working well already from panic

it felt like I was suffocating. I couldn't help but let out a little scream when he tied it

which made all the guys start laughing. "Claire I thought we had an agreement" aw crap

was the last thing I remember thinking before he took one of my arms and silted it near

the elbow. I knew I couldn't scream so I just put my tongue between my teeth and bit

down until I tasted blood. When I looked up again all I saw was a fist flying at my face.

It collided with my nose sending my blood everywhere I let my body go limp and let the

guy holding me support my weight. I heard the guy behind me moan once I did that.

"Get a hold of yourself Dillon we can't bite her you know that. Let's go I'll carry her."

Before I knew it Dillon was gone and I was falling towards the ground but before I hit

the ground I was in the guy from my room arms and was being swinged onto his left

shoulder. Is that even possible he was at least a good 20 feet away from me is it

humanly possible for someone to catch me from that far away? I wondered but before I

could get any farther in my thoughts he was running. He ran so fast that it was as fast

as a car probably faster. The ground looked like a blur and I had to close my eyes to

stop from being sick. That was when I decided that these people were vampires. But

how was I going to tell everyone else that I was being attacked by vampires. Yes, I did

decide to tell my new family that I had a (or many) crazy stalker but I wasn't sure how

to tell them. And now that there vampires that makes the matter much more confusing.

As I thought about this my thoughts were interrupted by howls from wolves crash

through the silent night. The vampire stopped so suddenly that I flew off his shoulder

landing hard on my back and arms my head being slammed to the rocky ground. I tasted

blood in my mouth. As my vision returned to normal I looked at the sky and saw that

black clouds were forming and it would start raining soon. This is really turning out to

be my day isn't it I said sarcastically in my head. I looked at all four vampires and all of

them were sharing worried glances. Good at least there worried about something. "We

fight" said the one from my room said as he picked up my legs and started dragging me

to the nearest tree. As he dragged me stones, dirt and twigs started scratching my back

and I felt something dripping down my back. I kept telling myself it was sweat but in my

heart I knew it was blood. We got to the tree and swung my body using my legs around

so that I was leaning against the tree trunk. "If you move or say anything you'll be sorry

for it later." He said to me through gritted teeth and I felt my head nod out of it's own

accord. The four vampires spread out around the tree the Dillon right in front of me,

Thomas to my left, Marley to my right and the guy from my room on the other side of

the tree. They just stood there for a moment and I wondered what they were doing but

when they crouched and snarled I got scared because I couldn't think of anything that

could scare a vampire. Soon I heard movement coming from the trees surrounding us

but I couldn't see anything. Soon I vaguely saw shadows coming from the trees and

when the shadows came closer I was shocked at what I saw. Right in front of me was a

gigantic black wolf so big that it easily doubled the size of Dillon who was at least 6

foot. And that I realized is something that can scare a vampire an abnormally sized wolf.

Then next to the black one came a much smaller pure white wolf with a touch of gray

and looked gawky and uncoordinated next to the black one. Soon wolfs were popping

out of the forest everywhere and I really began to hope that they weren't going to eat

me because I don't think that I would really like being there. I could see at least 8

wolves from where I sat and I heard more from the other side of the tree. But the one

that really caught my eye was a chocolate brown he was looking at me like he was

actually concerned about me which was kind of odd for a wolf and his gaze reminded

me of Quil's. I tore my gaze away from his because for some reason it made me

embarrassed and I felt my face go red. And from that wolves direction I heard kind of a

coughing bark that kind of sounded like he was laughing at me. I would have said

something if I could but before I could even look at him everyone was growling

including the vampires. Suddenly the black wolf lunged so fast that I hardly even

noticed it. Then suddenly something warm was dragging me by my shirt through the

mud for a couple meters. As he dragged me back I saw vaguely saw the wolves and the

vampires fighting but I tried to block that away from my mind. Suddenly the wolf

stopped dragging me and I became very scared that it was going to eat me but instead it

embraced me. It rapped its long body around mine so that I was completely surrounded

by warmth. I didn't realize how cold I was until I was this warm and for some stupid

reason I couldn't stop shivering. I heard lots of ripping and screaming on the vampires

parts but I also heard a couple whines from the wolves and every time a wolf whined

my heart sped up. I couldn't see anything except gray fur and I suppose that's a good

thing considering all the screaming. Once all the screaming stopped I heard a lot more

ripping and once that happened the air was filled with smoke. After the smell of smoke

died down I felt the wolf move and I felt his teeth on my wrist but instead of biting my

hands off like I highly expected it two I felt it bite through the rope on my wrists. I

ripped the gag off my mouth and gasped for air for a second and then painfully sat up. I

quickly untied my legs and tried to get up but the wolf put its head on my shoulder so I

lay back down. I couldn't see anything because the wolf was blocking my view but I

could tell that the vampires were gone and hopefully not going to come back. I looked at

my arms and on my wrists were two bruises that were sure to get some notice if I didn't

cover them off and my shoulders hurt so much that I couldn't move my upper body

without wincing. My nose was still bleeding so thickly that it was running down my chin

so not really caring I put my shirt to my nose knowing that it was ruined. As I laid on

the ground I could feel a bruise forming where the vampire had dropped me so I guess I

would have to sleep on my stomach for a while. My cut on my arm just stung a little it

was bleeding a lot but I knew it looked worse because of all the blood. After lying there

for a while my nose had almost stopped bleeding the gray wolf gently nudged me so I

sat up and climbed to my feet. What I saw when I got up was a huge pack of wolves

staring at me. For some reason I wasn't scared of them. All of them looked at me with

concern so it was almost human like and they looked intelligent unlike other wolves. I

forgot about the gray wolf behind me and when it licked me on the cheek it made me

jump. I was so scared that I said the first thing that came to mind "so I guess that means

that you're not going to eat me." All the wolves erupted in laugh like barks and I

couldn't help but be embarrassed. I put my hand on my neck and I felt something kind of

slimy and slippery I pulled my hand away from my neck, looked at it and saw that it was

covered in dark red blood. Well that would be the reason you have a headache. All the

barking had stopped now and even now some looked on the verge of panic. I took the

back of my shirt and wiped the blood off. Then I flipped my hair in front of my face and

gently started prodding my scalp. I found the cut eventually it was just above the nape

of my neck and was bleeding but not very hard but I couldn't do anything about it now.

After that the wolves and I just started at each other for a minute. Then all the wolves

were looking at the big black one and I assumed it to be the alpha. As the wolves

started at the black one it seemed like they were all communicating with each other.

Then about five of the wolves ran off barking into the forest and the rest were left

looking awkwardly at me. After a couple of moments of this I figured that the vampires

might have back up or something and I should probably leave as quickly as possible.

Even though I knew it was impossible to outrun a vampire I left the small clearing

anyway and to my surprise all the remaining wolves started following. I saw this and

then stopped suddenly just to see if they would they would too and then they stopped a

couple feet behind me. I did this a couple more times to see if they would continue to do

it and they did. "Yeah that's just a little bit creepy. This defiantly hit's the top ten

weirdest moments of my life." I said to them and every single one of them started

laughing/barking so loudly that I swear that people in Seattle could hear them. I rolled

my eyes, turned around and stalked into the forest following the vampire's footsteps.

Some of the footsteps were so far apart that it took a second too look for it. The wolves

continued following me the chocolate brown wolf came up close to my side so he was

almost touching me. Warmth was radiating off of him keeping me somewhat warm. I

realized that without the wolves this could have been a lot worse. I looked into the deep

brown eyes of the chocolate brown wolf and whispered into the wolf's ear "thank you."

When I did that the intelligent eyes of the wolf looked back with what I took for

understanding. I looked away quickly feeling a blush on my face. I looked up and the sky

dark sky and stupidly said "at least it's not raining." Oh why did I say that?

**10 minutes later **

Guess what? It started raining. And it wasn't just lightly raining it was pouring. It was

raining so hard that I could barely see 5 feet in front of me. I was soaked to the skin

and shivering even though the brown wolf was still near me. I kept walking through

ankle deep mud. I took my hair out of my ponytail hoping it would keep me warmer but

since I was only wearing a thin cotton short sleeve t shirt nothing was going to keep me

warm now. The only lucky thing was that I could vaguely see the outline of the

vampires footprint but in about two more minutes even that would be gone and I would

be lost in the middle of a forest with a pack of wolves. I kept on walking trying not to

fall and then it happened I could no longer see the footprints. I looked up and down for

it but I couldn't find it. It had started raining harder and now I could barely see two

steps in front of me. "Shoot" I said wiping water out of my eyes. There was no clear

path to take so I did the only logical thing and kept walking in the same direction. I kept

walking not really noticing anything just trying to find a way home. So I was really

surprised when I fell. I was walking through the forest and didn't really notice that that

there was a steep hill on the right side of me. So I just kept walking along but all the

rain and made the mud erode and just my luck the part that I was walking on was

suddenly gone. I wasn't touching anything for a moment and I thought that I was flying.

_But then I collided with the ground on my back, hard. I started sliding through the dirt_

and being covered in mud but thank god there wasn't any trees for me to hit but that

was just luck. I went down the hill to scared to scream and eventually I stopped at the

end of the hill by running into a tree. I just kind of started up at the sky for a while until

I heard the wolves start sliding down the hill after me. I lifted my head up and saw that

they were sliding down on their feet a lot more graceful then I did. I got up to my feet

with a groan and stared blankly out into the forest. I didn't notice when the brown wolf

came up and I almost jumped out of my skin when it gently touched the small of my

back with its nose. "That way?" I asked him pointing to the right, the direction that he

nudged me. He nudged me again this time a little bit harder, but still gently so I walked

in that direction. I wasn't sure if I could trust these wolves but I figured I had to if I was

ever going to get out of here. The rain let up after a while enough so that I could at

least see where I was going but the bad part was that a bolt of lightning streaked across

the sky. When it started thundering about three of the wolves stated pushing me in the

back so that I was up to a small jog. When I saw some of the other wolves running I

realized what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to run. I started off at a fairly

slow run but when the lighting got more regular the wolves started prodding me in the

back again and I started running harder. After about five minutes of this I was almost

sprinting. We all just ran for a while and I could tell that this was terribly slow for a wolf

but I was to winded to say anything so I just kept on running. My breathing turned into

gasps and I thought my side would explode but I just kept on going and eventually I

didn't feel anything at all. Finally the rain went down into a drizzle and the lightning had

stoppedandthethunderwasonlyinthedistancebutforsomereasonthewolvesjust

kept on running. After what felt like forever I saw the wolves in front of me and the

brown one who was keeping pace with me stopped and I swear I could hear the

hallelujah chorus. Once I did stop I had to grab on to a low tree branch to not fall over.

Once I felt like I could use my legs again I let go of the tree branch and walked forward

and out of the forest. That moment was probably one of the happiest moments of my

life because what I saw was the back of the house and I couldn't help but smile a little

when I saw it. I started slowly walking towards the back door unable to go any faster

and to my dismay it was locked. I ran to the side door and that was locked too as I was

going up to the front door I heard Emily yell Jack's name. I quickly ran off the porch and

dove into the bushes on the side of the house landing hard on my stomach. Seconds

later Emily and Jack came walking out the door. But before they got off the porch Emily

asked Jack "Have you seen Claire?" "Yeah, I think I heard her coming up the stairs an

hour ago." "Oh, well I must have missed her. I'll go leave her a note just in case

though." When she did that my heart almost burst with sheer happiness. She actually

cared about me and didn't totally forget about me but that short feeling of happiness

was gone when she shut the door and locked it. She and Jack ran out to the car and as

they were leaving I could swear that they both looked right at me. Once they were out

of sight I ran up to the door and tried to pull it open but it wouldn't budge."Gosh dang it"

I said as I climbed off the porch and made my way to the back of the house. I

remembered that I left my window open so if I could somehow get to it... my train of

thought was suddenly cut off when I saw that all the wolves were standing at the back

of the house. I just ignored them as they all stared at me as I went over to the ivy that

was crawling up the side of the house right up to my small circular window. "Well I

guess it's a good thing I'm not scared of heights." I looked over my shoulder and said

thank you to the wolves and I could have sworn that I saw some of them nod and a

couple roll their eyes. I put my right foot in a loop of the vines and pulled myself up. I

heard some barks and wines from behind me but I just ignored them. I kept on going and

soon I was at my window. I pushed myself through the window arms first and I fell with

a scream onto my bed. I just laid there for a moment happy to be home and in my own

bed then I remembered the wolves and I climbed onto my headboard and looked down

and saw the wolves running away across the field and into the forest but I couldn't help

but notice that the small uncoordinated white one was not with them.

**Hi guys I am really really sorry that I haven't updated in a while. But I promise to do it more often. So what did you think? I want three reviews before I update again but more are always welcome. Thanks to all my readers and reviewers you guys rock. Thanks**

**Sky and Stars **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight**


	13. Chapter 13

Burning Chapter 13

I collapsed into a painful heap on my bed and immediately fell asleep. My dreams were filled with vivid winding colors that all melted away into nothingness and then the dream changed and I was back in the forest surrounded by wolves but these wolves were nothing like the one's I had really met. These wolves were rabid and they were surrounding me and growling at me. The four vampires were their surrounding me. All of them started circling around me and I couldn't keep my eyes on all of them. Suddenly all of them pounced on me and my eyes shot open. I quickly sat up, my heart racing, my body throbbing. I was soaked to the skin and couldn't stop shivering. I stood up and then really noticed how hurt I was. My head was still throbbing, my legs were soar from running all that way, my shoulders hurt if I raised my arms above my waist and the bruises on my back and wrists were now purple. I looked at my face in the mirror and saw that it had dried blood and dirt running down it. I heard a car door slam and quickly turned around and then I remembered that we were going to have a bon fire tonight. I filled up the tub with water as hot as I could stand it and then stripped off my bloody, ripped up, dirty clothes and climbed into the wonderfully hot water. At first my whole body stung but after a minute of breathing deeply the pain melted away. I washed my hair a couple times and scrubbed off all the dirt but I still didn't feel like I was clean. I felt scared of everything. It felt like I was never going to be safe again and everything was threatening. All I wanted was for someone to understand what was going on in my life, have them give me a big hug, then curl up with a good book and fall asleep. But I knew that wasn't a possibility no one would ever understand my situation and I had to go to this bonfire and I don't think Emily, who already thought I was anti-social (which is true) would approve of me bringing a book to a social event. I painfully climbed out of the water, which was now stained black with dirt and red with blood. I changed into a pair of loose fitting jeans, a long sleeve loose gray t- shirt, and the biggest, softest sweatshirt I could find and a different pair of running shoes. Since all the medical stuff was in the bathroom downstairs I had to go down. I felt nauseated and when I started going down the stairs and smelt food I almost threw up. I held my breath and hurried into the bathroom. My face looked pale and I looked to fragile. I pulled up my sleeve and wrapped gauze around the cut on my elbows and just because I felt like it I put it on both my wrists and on my back but even after that everything still hurt. When I was fixing myself up I heard the front door open every couple minutes and soon there was a chorus of voices. I pinched some color into my cheeks and walked back and forth on the tiled floor practicing not wincing when I walked. But no matter how much I tried to calm myself down I couldn't get that panicked half crazed and sad look out of my eyes. Taking a deep breath I opened the door and walked down the stairs into the kitchen and had to breathe through my mouth in order not to be sick. Everyone was already there, enjoying themselves. Leah and Seth were having a arm wrestling contest and I could see that Jake, Embry, and Paul were taking bets and to me it looked like Leah was winning and I couldn't help but smile. Emily was cooking with Sam helping her. Jack, Collin, Jared and Quil were talking in hushed voices and Quil looked kind of angry and upset so I decided that I would talk to him later. Kim, Lily, and Erica were laughing about something and I didn't think I could handle overly happy people right now so I just leaned against the counter and happily zoned out into space.

Quil's Point of View

We all ran quickly back into the forest and met up with the other wolves. We had Emily and Jack lock the door because we had one of us be around so she wouldn't get suspicious of us being the wolves. Though we hadn't thought the plan all the way though so it ended up that she couldn't get into the house so she had to climb through her window. I couldn't her tortured face out of my mind and all I wanted to do was to go and help her but I knew Sam wouldn't allow me to talk to her yet because he thought I was too worked up and I would get mad and hurt her. "Sorry, Quil but if you get mad you'll hurt her. But I'll tell you what you can talk to her when we get to the bon- fire but not a second before. And you have to tell her, soon." My mind went momentarily blank. "Sam" I screamed in my mind "we can't tell her she's hurt and it will only hurt her more. She's only a child, only 14." "Quil, I know you don't want to tell her until she's older but if we don't tell her now we won't be able to tell us and don't even think that she'll tell us about this problem. She doesn't trust us enough we had everyone try to get close to her and she's made friends with all of us but she still doesn't trust us enough and we're running out of time Quil." I thought about this briefly. "She will tell us eventually." I said a matter of factly. I knew her she can't keep this secret for much longer. "Quil, she'll tell us only when she's dying or she get's kidnapped or something. Today we didn't kill the head of the vampires we just took out some of the leader's soldiers there's a lot more out there and they will hurt her more than those did today. I that what you want for her to be hurt more." "NO, of course not." "Then tell her." "Fine" I said with difficulty "but I'm not going to tell her I imprinted on her. " "Good tell her tomorrow." "But the funeral is tomorrow" I said she'll be emotionally drained after tomorrow. After I said that I felt everyone's emotions feel sad and I felt my heart hurt too. "Right, does she even know about that?" I shook my head. Emily had been meaning to tell her for two weeks but never got the guts too. "Then tell her sometime soon. She has to know that we can protect her." I nodded and I felt everyone else nod with me.

**Half an hour later**

I saw her come quietly down the stairs like she usually does but this time she looked really hurt. Her eyes had this kind of panicked look and she looked pale and when she walked I could see that she was limping slightly. "Oh, Claire" I whispered and I had to fight the strong feeling to rush over to her and hug her, and take care of her. I felt a familiar hot burning feeling in my stomach and I felt my hands begin to shake. I quickly turned away from her and took a couple deep breaths. "Relax Quil. You can see her soon. Just relax." Said Jared besides Sam he had always been the calmest. I ran my hands through my now longish hair and glanced back at her. She looked so broken and I could see and hear that she was just breathing through her mouth. She looked unusually pale and since she had one arm wrapped around her stomach (a position I've never seen her do before) I guessed that she didn't feel good. I felt Sam look at me and we both exchanged a worried glance so I guessed that he noticed too. For ten minutes I kept glancing back at her and for the whole time she didn't move, didn't talk to anyone and just stared into space. Right then I vowed to make it my life's mission to make her feel comfortable around us. I knew she felt comfortable with me, Jack, Sam, Emily, Jake, and Collin (she became pretty good friends with them over that last couple weeks and I knew that they both enjoyed her company) but I knew she felt out of sorts when she was with a large group of people and I promised myself to make sure she was comfortable. Soon after Emily called us all out of the house saying it was time to go. All of us took a plate of food and went to our cars. The whole time Claire was walking to the car I was watching her.

Claire's point of View

We drove through a couple twists and turns of roads since I have never been this way I had no idea where we were going and I liked it that way. It was sometimes good to wander a little bit then I remembered the quote "all who wonder are not lost." And I finally realized how true that saying is. We drove around for a little while following a trail of cars. And finally we stopped at a small parking lot in the little of the forest. As a group we all walked into the group and I forcibly remembered what happened and then I started shivering a little bit. Sam was walking behind me with Emily and I felt him lean forward and whisper "you alright?" "Yeah" I whispered back to him. I knew he was going to say something else but I just started walking faster. I saw Quil walking with Seth and Collin a couple feet ahead of us and it kind of looked like they we're forcing him forward, like he didn't want to go. When we got to the small clearing Paul and Jake already had a small fire going and immediately Emily and Sam went to set up food. Finding nothing else I could do. I sat down and I felt Jack sit down next to me. Jack had always been nice to me he never made fun of me or laughed at me or anything but he had never been protective of me. When he sat down next to me he put his hands behind him leaning on them and one of his arms was right beside me so that I had to lean on him a little. It felt really good to lean on something. Soon Emily had the food ready and a swarm of people went up there to get food, including Jack. "Hi Claire, aren't you hungry?" I looked up and saw Quil looking down at me with intense worried eyes. "Not really, I don't feel that great." "Ah" he said with concern but I could tell he was trying to hide it. He sat down next to me and I automatically felt comforted by just his presence. Wow your really loosening it Claire. We both stayed there stareing into the fire until I asked "Why aren't you eating?" "Not hungry" "you're not hungry? This is the guy who usually has eight hot dogs and you're not hungry, you must be sick." "Yeah I'm sick." I dropped it and soon people were back with food making fun of each other and eating more then humanly possible. "Are you sure you're not hungry? Maybe you should eat something…" I cut him off "no I'm defiantly not hungry." "Then do you want to play a game?" "Sure, what do you want to want to play?" He pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket and said "all I know how to play with just two players and a deck of cards is War or Gin Rummy." "War, but on one exception you can't just let me win okay?" "Why would I let you win?" "Well you know how some people let kids win games just because their kids and I hate it when they do it." "You consider yourself a kid?" "Yeah, what else would I be?" "A teenager a young adult" "what's the fun of being called a young adult when you're still a kid and pretty much all adults are prejudice to teenagers so a kid is a lot more fun." "Wow, even Jack considers himself a teenager and he's almost thirteen." I gave him a small smile and giggled a little bit. He smiled a little bit back at me. "Shut up you guys you know I can hear you!" We heard Jack yell from somewhere. Quil and I exchanged looks and laughed until I cried, which sadly only took a couple moments. After we could both breathe right again he started to deal out cards. We played a couple hands and we just talked about random stuff and it was surprisingly easy to talk to him. It felt normal and natural to tell him everything. He made me smile which is something I severely needed to do more especially since I was just attacked by vampires, but he had a weird way of making me forget about all my problems and he never once made me feel awkward or nervous like I usually do talking to people. After we played a couple games he actually got me to eat something. He gave me half an apple and he ate the other half. A little bit after that we we're both leaning against a tree, shoulder to shoulder, I was so comfortable with him next to me that I feel asleep with my head leaning against his arm.

**Quil's point of view**

She fell asleep leaning on me. The second that she fell asleep I pulled her onto my lap. She leaned her head against my shoulder and I motioned Lily over and everyone went quiet. I knew it was really hard for everyone to act like normal tonight because I knew that everyone (even Leah) was deathly scared for Claire. Lily came over and gently lifted her right and left sleeve. She unwrapped some gauze on the wrist's and the cut on the inside of her elbow. The cut besides being a little bit red looked alright and so did the bruises and she didn't flinch at all when Lily touched her so I guessed it didn't hurt that bad. "Man her shoulder's and legs must kill." Lily said "How far did she run?" "8 miles" "Does anyone know how she did that?" someone asked. "She said she ran cross country and track and apparently she's pretty fast." I answered without looking up from her beautiful face. Lily looked at her and said that she probably just has a really bad headache. She checked out the huge bruise on her back. It was black around the edges and was a deep purple, blue, brown and when she touched it Claire gasped in her sleep. I immediately hugged her closely to me and she calmed down again and fell back into a hard sleep. An hour later we left and I nearly died when I gave Claire to Sam and watched them drive back home with me not with her.

**Sorry it's been a while. School started so everything's really crazy and I can only update on weekends. Sorry. So what did you think? I want three reviews until I update again but more are always welcome. Thanks to all my readers and reviewers you guys are the best. **

**Sky and Stars**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight **


	14. Chapter 14

Burning Chapter 14

I woke up staring at the white ceiling that I woke up to the first day I got to La Plush and boy was it Déjà vu. I half expected to hear Emily walking around in the

kitchen but instead it was quiet which was quite unusual for the Udly household. Thinking back to the first day that I arrived in this house I realized how much

ignorance is bliss. When I got here I had no idea that some might be vampire is trying to kill me and or kidnap me. Ignorance would be a very good thing but I

could no longer ignore this problem. If this problem continued to escalate it could threaten the lives of everyone else because they might figure out where I live

and that would be terrible especially if they didn't know about my little problem. I would tell them when the time was right I promised to myself. I got to my feet

and found my shoes on the ground by falling flat on my face. My whole body already hurt and when I fell every part of me exploded in pain. Sensing that I

couldn't get up without screaming or at least gasping I laid on my stomach with my face buried into the shaggy brown carpet. I laid there for a minute and I think

that I fell asleep for a little while because the next thing I remember was someone picking me up by my arms and saying my name. My eyes snapped open and

found that I was looking deeply into Quil's. "Hello" I said "Hello, yourself. Might I ask why you were sprawled out on the ground and are you all right?" "Oh, well I

woke up and I tripped over my shoes and I didn't want to get up so I just feel back asleep, but I'm fine." I lied but I figured that I told part of the truth so it

wasn't true lying, hypothetically. "He laughed but the look of panic never left his eyes. I looked around and saw that I was in Quil's arms and he had one arm

under my knees and one behind my back. I looked at the ground and said "so this is what it's like to be tall." I was probably at least five inches that I normally

am tall and it was kind of cool to be this high up. He smiled again and this time it reached his eyes and it made me smile too, "Yeah, the only bad thing about it is

that it's sometimes hard to get through short doorways." I couldn't help it and burst out laughing at the thought of ducking under a doorway. "Yeah, funny,

funny" he said sarcastically and rolled his eyes. "Sorry" I said "could you put me down, please." "Sure but first I have to tell you something." He sat down on the

couch with me still in his arms, I moved my back slightly and his arms were so tight around me that I could barley do that and I knew there was no escaping what

he was going to tell. His face was completely serious and I could tell this was going to be bad. "Claire, I'm sorry that no one told you earlier, but" the only thing

that I was thinking was oh God, oh God, oh God "your family's funeral is today." All my thoughts and emotions went away. I was blank not feeling anything and

the first thing that I thought was oh great this is great timing. The day after I get attacked by a might be vampire there's a funeral, joy this is going to be fun. Oh

jeez I can't do this what if I start crying hysterically and then everyone thinks I'm crazy. I knew my family's death had affected me in many ways. It made me

realize that something terrible and unexpected could happen at any moment and sometimes there was nothing you could do to stop it. I dealt with my family's

death a lot differently than other people would. I cried myself to sleep and I didn't want to be around anyone and I frequently lost myself in a book because it

hurt so much but that was weeks ago I was feeling better about it now but how would the funeral make me feel? One of the questions that really bugged me

was why did I survive? I was supposed to die wasn't I but if I was supposed to die then why didn't the vampire in my room kill me right then and there? The

second I thought that all my feelings from weeks ago came back and all the emotions from the last couple days came back with more intensity than ever before. I

felt nervous and panicked and it felt like I couldn't breathe. The sadness hit me like a rock I felt the smile from moments before wipe off my face into a deep

frown. I didn't know what to do I wanted to cry, scream, run, and hit something at the same time and it made me confused which really didn't help in anyway. I

finally forced myself out of my thoughts and saw that Quil was looking at me with more intensity and worry then I have ever seen him and then I felt the tears

that were falling down my face. Embarrassed I quickly wiped them away and felt my face turn tomato red. "Aw, Claire don't be embarrassed to cry in front of me."

He took his arm away from my knees and instead used it to gently press my face into his chest. He gently rocked me back and forth as tears fell down my face.

His warmth felt really good and I loved the feeling of his arms around me. Claire, stop thinking like that he just feels bad for you and it's the only reason why he's

hanging out with you same with everyone else. I finally realized to myself that everything that he probably said to me was fake and that he really doesn't care

about me in any way what so ever and it just made me start crying harder. How did my life turn from virtually no problems to swirling emotions and problems like

someone trying to murder me? I heard the kitchen door slam closed door and heard footsteps towards this room. I quickly forced myself away from Quil and ran

up the stairs and got to the top just as I heard the door open. I looked back and saw that Quil was right behind me but was so quiet that I didn't see him. I

walked quickly down the hallway to where the stairs to my room was, not bothering to wipe the tears off my face that were now flowing freely. I was no longer

unaware of my bumps and bruises from the other night and I now had a killer headache and I couldn't help but limp as I walked up the stairs with Quil close

behind me. As I crawled through the tunnel I vaguely wondered how Quil could fit and how with all the weight why we weren't falling through the floor. We got to

the stair case and I heard Quil say "jeez this is quite the way up." But I didn't answer him. I made my way up the staircase went into my room and made a

beeline for the bathroom meaning to lock myself in there to avoid Quil. I hated it when people were around me when I cried. As I walked there Quil gently

grabbed my hand and stopped me in my tracks and forced me to face him. He went down on one knee so he was looking me right in the eyes and said

"remember the last time that I did this." He said referring to the position that he was in. I remembered back to my first night here and after Emily and I had

locked our self's in my room we had climbed through a secret tunnel that led to the barn outside. Then as I was sitting on the sitting on the swing outside on the

porch he had come out and in the exact same position as he is in now he said "I want you to know that I am always there for you." Remembering I nodded

weakly. "Well that promise still holds true you can tell me anything and I swear I will not tell anyone and don't you dare ever get embarrassed to cry in front of

me. We need to talk about this because it's just going to hurt worse if you don't talk about it and how you're feeling. And to my knowledge you have not talked

about this to anyone yet and now's a perfect time to do it, okay." I nodded comforted by his pretend caring. Still holding my hand he led me to my bed and thank

goodness that I had stopped almost stopped crying. I sat cross legged on the bed and he did opposite of me and he just looked at me and waited for me to

begin. I couldn't think of anything to say because I couldn't think of a way to say about the way that I'm so I just said "I'm fine" and leaned back on the bed. The

second that I said that Quil started protesting "then why did you start crying a couple minutes ago. You have to talk about it Claire because if you wait too long

you'll suddenly break." "How do you know?" "Do you want to hear a story?" I shrugged and I felt him lie down next to me and he started telling. "Okay, well my

dad died a couple years back…" "Sorry" I said interrupting him "thanks cutie but it's all right anyway, I denied that anything was wrong until the funeral much as

you are doing now. I went around like nothing was wrong and acted like I normally was even though it hurt like he... Well it just hurt and the day of the funeral I

saw my dad lying there and I had an emotional breakdown and cried for a couple of hours and do you want that to happen to you and mind my emotional

breakdown was in front of about fifty people." I pictured myself sitting in front of about fifty people all of whom I knew and saw myself crying and everyone

staring at me. I turned to my side so that I was facing him. "I guess not" I sighed. "Then spit it out." "But….But I don't know how to it all is so confusing." "So

you're confused, what about." "It's like I'm confused about what I'm feeling. I feel nervous and panicky all the time and I really don't know why." Of course I really

did know the reason why I was so anxious but I wasn't ready to tell him that yet. "Then….then I feel bad when I'm happy because I…..I…I know that I shouldn't

be happy. And why did I survive when I really should of died I should have died or at least died trying to save them. Then I feel like I need to run but I can't and I

need to hit something and I don't know what to do because of everything and…..and it makes me really hyper and I just don't know what to do because it feels

like I need to do something. "It felt really good to get all that stuff off my chest even though there was a lot more including the fact that I was scared that I was

going to be murdered and I thought I was going insane because I thought there were vampires and werewolves but I told him everything that I was feeling

concerning my family's death. In the middle of my little speech I had started crying and now I was wiping away the tears. I avoided looking into his eyes scared of

what I might see there and even though he said not to be embarrassed to cry around him I still was and felt my face turn bright red. "Okay, good but don't feel

bad when your sad your family would have wanted to be happy and were ever they are now I'm sure there happy and you should be to. I'm sorry I really don't

know why you're so anxious but just relax and breathe deeply when you feel like that. Claire, you lived for a reason. Everything happens for a reason and you

survived for a reason and don't ever think that it's your fault that they died because it never was and never will be. All right, feel better?" I nodded but I still

couldn't stop crying and to my dismay I started sobbing. He reached out for me and hugged me close to his chest his body consuming mine. "Shhh, Claire your all

right, everything's fine." He held me and I sobbed for probably twenty minutes. Finally once I stopped crying I pulled myself away from him looked at a digital

watch and saw that it was already ten thirty in the morning. "Quil what time does it start?" "Noon" "I probably have to get there early right." "Only twenty

minutes" "I should get ready then it's already 10:30, how long does it take to get there?" "Half hour maybe a little less" "I wordlessly walked to my closet and

suddenly was very happy that I had a ton of black "Well it's good that I have a lot of black." I said to Quil. "Is it casual or dressy? But then again I'm defiantly not

wearing a dress or even anything relatively girly so it doesn't matter." I said more to myself then to Quil. I picked out a long sleeve huge shirt that was a size too

big and the darkest jeans that I could find and decided to wear them even though they had holes in the knee. I went into the bathroom and changed, brushed

my teeth, and washed my face. Ten minutes later I came out and found Quil looking at all the pictures that Emily had looked at so long ago. Instead of bothering

him I picked up the book that I was reading and I figured that I had about forty minutes until we had to go.

Forty minutes later

"Quil I can't do this. I really, really can't what if I start crying or something. What if I don't know anyone? Quil I'm really, really nervous I can't do it. How long is

it?" "Its five hours but your tougher then even you know and you can do it. And if you really can't I'll drive you home." I nodded. I was sitting in the passenger

seat next to Quil who was driving. Emily and Sam let me come with Quil over since I had to be there a couple minutes earlier. Quil had one hand on the steering

wheel and the other was tightly holding my hand. For the rest of the ride there I quietly panicked an once we pulled into the parking lot Quil whispered into my

ear "Don't worry everything's going to be fine. I'll stay with you the whole time." We both climbed out of the car and the only part that was good was that it

hadn't stated raining. We walked in and it smelled musty and old. People were scrambling around everywhere putting flowers in vases and putting up pictures of

our family and at that second I wanted someone to kill me. Quil took my hand and held it tightly as we walked into the middle of the room. "Are you Claire?" I

heard someone say and we both i turned around and we saw a rather tall women with white blonde hair probably in her mid- fifty's. I nodded and she came up

and gave me a hug. Oh jeez people are going to want to hug me. Crap, I didn't think about. She let go and said "I'm so sorry. I'm Claudia and I'm organizing the

funeral. "I gave her a smile and she said "You're a shy one aren't you well cutie the police shipped us some of the stuff of yours that survived so I hope you

brought a big car." She said "Come on it's all this way." I felt Quil put his hands on my shoulders and led me after Claudia. After going through a couple halls she

led us to a small obviously unused coat room. Filling the room were about seven or eight boxes and something that I recognized as a cello case. "Feel free to

take it whenever you want but we just want it all gone today, okay. Well I'll be in the main room if you need me." She exited the door and I said "Are we going to

be able to fit this all into your car." "I think so" I picked up one of the boxes which luckily weren't that heavy. I left the room and Quil followed me carrying two

boxes. "Jeez Quil how do you carry all that stuff?" "I'm just cool like that." I laughed and said "shut up show off." He laughed and ran his hand though my hair.

We took a couple trips and by the time I lifted my cello that I was now itching to play onto the back seat people had already arrived and were talking in the family

room.

Four and a half hours later

It was the worst five hours of my life and we even left a half an hour early because I was about to hit anyone else who hugs me or says I'm sorry or tries to

make useless small talk. Quil kept his promise and stayed with me for the whole five hours. Sometimes he left me but I could still feel his eyes on my so it was all

right. It was really sweet how most of the time he held my hand. The food was really gross but I didn't want to eat anything or even drink anything because I felt

sick. My friends didn't come just as I expected them not to. My grandparents had died before I was born so they weren't there so most of the people there were

family that I had never heard of or my parent's friends that I have never met before. I avoided looking at the pictures because it would bring back memories that

I would rather forget. One time about three hours in I caught a glimpse of a picture of my brother's face and I remembered something. Some guys were following

me after school, when I was freshmen who were making fun of me I ran into my brother on the way to the bus and he punched one of them in the face and was

suspended for a week. That was the only time that I only lost it and started crying but all the pictures were sitting in the back of the car waiting for me to look at

them. Emily started crying a little while ago so Sam, Jack, and Emily left and everyone else that I knew left about twenty minutes after them all giving me big hugs

as they left. Now I was just exhausted wanted to go read a book or cry or something and then I would feel better. I sat next to Quil who was silently driving me

home. I looked out the window and watched the sun go down and finally once you could barely see the sun and we were almost home I said to Quil "thank you"

"For what?" "Staying with me even though you probably didn't want too" "why, wouldn't I want to?" I realized what I had said and now I would have to explain

how I thought he just hung out with me and pretended to care for me just because he felt bad. What if I hurt his feelings? How do I get into situations like this?

He turned off the car since we just pulled into my driveway. Sensing this was not a good time I said "Can I tell you a little later?" He put a burning hand on my

face and said "Promise?" "yeah I promise" "Okay" He let my face go and climbed out of the car. I opened the car door and went around the car to carry in the

boxes. No one else was there except Sam, Emily and Jack. We dumped all the stuff into the family and I decided that I would never look though them and they

would end up in the basement. I noticed that two of the boxes were labeled Claire's room. So we took that and my cello into my room and then came back

downstairs. We could hear Sam comforting Emily so we avoided that hallway and went the long way. "You should eat something sweetie you haven't eaten

anything in a long time. You barley ate anything last night and it's already 7:30 and you haven't ate anything yet today." "I'm not really hungry." "I'm not letting

this go until you eat something at least have chicken noodle soup or you know we can always make chocolate chip pancakes." I laughed and said "I guess

chicken noodle soup." We opened a couple of cans and then he asked "Will you tell me what you meant in the car about sticking around with you even though I

probably didn't want to?" "You promise that you won't get mad." He nodded and I couldn't help how he shifted on his feet nervously, something he always does

when he's nervous."Um well I just thought that well because you're so much older than me that well, you know, you're just being nice and hanging out with me

because you feel bad." We were both silent as he just stared at me his expression passive almost like he didn't know how to react. The microwave timer went off

but we both just ignored it. "Claire" He said just above a whisper. "How can you think that I care about very, very deeply " He walked over to me and gently put

his warm hand on my cheek and said " Please believe me I would never hurt you I swear to you that I do care and I care a lot. And it doesn't matter how much

older than I am then you as long as they like being with someone and they care about them it's fine for them to hang out with them, right?" "Yeah, so you really

care?" "Yes, Claire I care more then you could possibly imagine. I can't believe you thought that for so long you should have told me sooner." "Sorry" "It's fine

just if you ever have thoughts about that just tell me okay." "Okey dokey" "He went back over to the microwave and said "You're so cute" "why does everyone

think I'm so cute?" "Well" He said dishing out huge amounts of soup into two bowls. "It's probably because you're sometimes really funny, you're shy, your

young, and your really small. " "I'm not short" "wow you are in denial." "Probably." We took the soup to my room and ate it in silence on my bed. "So you play the

cello?" "Yeah, but I'm not very good I just like playing it for the heck of it." I said shrugging. "How long have you played?" He asked "Since third grade" I replied.

Once we ate all the soup he asked me "Do you want to look through some of the boxes or is it too much for you?" "Yeah, lets look through one of them I'm not

sure if I'm ready for two. We looked though one of the huge boxes and I found a lot of the clothes that were girly and were sitting on the bottom of my shelf. But

some of my favorite clothes had survived. Next was a lot a couple of binders of sheet music and was filled with bow directions and fingerings. Then to my dismay

was my stupid Geometry book that I lost last year and had to pay for the stupid thing when I couldn't find it. "Oh, my God it won't die. Were burning it at the next

bon-fire." I said throwing it across the room which made Quil laugh. Then there were about ten books that were sitting on my shelf. And at the very bottom was a

huge thick brown book that was very warn out that I have never seen before. "I've never seen this before" I said to Quil. "You've never seen it before?" I shook

my head and Quil looked really angry. "Your mom was supposed to show that to you." "What?" "Claire" Quil said looking very serious "if I have to tell you

something that will change your life from the second that I tell you would you want me to tell you tonight even though your family's funeral was today." He was

kind of freaking me out so I just stared at him until he said "I'm sorry if I'm scaring you but Sam made me promise to tell you something that will defiantly change

your life and it's either tonight or tomorrow." "Quil, you're kind of scaring me but I guess tonight to get it over with." "I'm sorry I'm scaring you but Sam made me

promise I would tell you. But there's nothing to be scared of. I just have to show you something. "

Soo sorry it's been so long but I'll have a lot more time now that cross country ended yesterday. So what do think? Was it to sad? What did you think? I want three reviews before I update next time which will be somewhat soon but more are always welcome. Thanks to everyone who reads and reviews this story

-Sky and Stars

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight


	15. Chapter 15

Burning Chapter 15

Claire's Point of View

He said he had to tell me something. Something that I knew nothing of. Something that, he said would change my life forever. But what if I knew more then he thought…..

Okay seriously I thought to myself; stop with all the dramatic questions, your just freaking yourself out. A couple moments ago Quil told me that he had to show me something and to

dress warmly. I pulled my shoes on and a thick sweat shirt over my black tee- shirt. As I went down the hallway I heard Sam snoring and Jack's door was shut so I knew that we were

probably going to sneak out- again. I made my way to the kitchen and saw Quil standing by the kitchen table pen in hand, scribbling something on a piece of paper. "Quil" I whispered

as I came over to him. He turned toward me and gave a pained smile. "Hi, ready to go?" "I guess" I replied slightly nervous because he said that this thing would change my life, but he

could very well be over reacting. Before we left he came over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry" he said looking down at me, and I quickly looked away because I

could feel my face go bright red "there's nothing to be afraid of, I swear." His hand fell off my shoulder and it moved to pull the hood of my sweatshirt over my head so that the fabric

almost covered my eyes. He then took my hand and led me out the back door. Instead of going to the car like I expected him to, without hesitating he kept walking down the driveway

and then made a left on the street. Not knowing where we were going and followed him blindly down the street and then to my surprise we turned onto his driveway, but again he did

the exact opposite of what I expected. Instead of going inside his house he led me to his backyard and we started walking a trail that lead through the forest that now seemed to be

everywhere. The second that I was back in the forest I felt my heart start beating faster and faster. After a couple minutes of walking my body was lined in cold sweat,my breathing

was faster than it should be, and I was fully expecting my heart to leap out of my chest, start running in circles, screaming. Let me tell you that was quite a comical image, but I was too

scared to laugh. And finally we came to a small clearing, and in the middle of the clearing was probably one of the tallest trees in the forest with a tree house connected. The tree

house was almost literally ahouse. To get up into it there was two ropes that had knots in it to climb up into a trap door in the floor and nestled into two of the larger branches was a

small shack complete with a roof and four wide,open windows. I could tell it was old. Most of the shingles from the roof had fallen off and at one time it was probably nicely painted but

now all the paint was either gone or peeling. There was ivy lining the walls on the outsides and at some points it looked like the ivy was dripping off the house and consuming the

structure. Not believing what I was seeing all I said was "wow." "Yeah," he said in response"this was pretty much where I lived until I was about 15. My dad built it when he was a kid

and it's pretty amazing that it's still around." Still not having a logical response all I could think of to say is "wow.""But this isn't the only thing I wanted to show you." Until that moment

I hadn't realized that I relaxed so much until I looked up at Quil and saw fear in his eyes. My pulse spiked again and the fear started again. Your going to be fine, I told myself, Quil is

here and he can hopefully protect you. My mind went back to earlier tonight and remembered him saying that he wouldn't let anything happen to me. Though comforted by this fact, my

heart refused to stop pounding in my ears. He once again took my hand and led me to the base of the tree with the tree house in it and told me to sit down. Once I sat down, he

kneeled down next to me and said "what you are about to see you cannot tell anyone else, not a soul, okay?" I nodded and he seemed satisfied and continued on."It is me don't think

it's just an animal." Noting my confused glace at him he said quickly "I know that sounds really confusing right now but don't worry you'll understand in a minute, I'll be right back." With

that, he quickly kissed me onthe forehead (much to my embarrassment) and ran out into the trees, out of my vision. It felt like something was watching me. The couple minutes that he

was gone felt like hours. A couple times I thought that I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye but when I looked back everything was still. But after what felt like an

excruciating long wait, I saw deep chocolate brown eyes staring at me. I blinked quickly a couple times but the eyes never disappeared so I figured they were real. Then the eyes were

coming closer and closer to me and then I saw what the eyes were connected to, the big chocolate brown wolf that protected me last night. I felt my eyes pop open wide and could not

keep the look of amazement off my face. Then I realized what Quil mean by saying it wasn't just an animal but it was him. Quil was the wolf. The wolf was Quil. It took a minute to wrap

my thoughts around this concept but then I realized why that wolf reminded me of Quil yesterday. The wolf had the same deep brown eyes as Quil's and the wolf's had the same

protective, slightly shy, but easily confident atmosphere as Quil has while he's human. But then he knows. He knows…… and I was right about them being werewolves so that was

probably why it didn't shock me as much as it should have. My mind went blank for a while and all I heard was a dull buzzing in my ears. He knows. He knows that a vampire is trying to

kill and or kidnap me and he protected me last night. He protected me just like all the other wolves' did. Who were the other wolves then? Probably all the guys because they look

somewhat like Quil does. So then all the girls who were married and or related to someone who was a werewolf probably knew about my problem. And I didn't even know it. Well that

explains why everyone wastrying to get me to open up to them for the last couple weeks. For the last couple weeks pretty much everyone had wanted me to tell them what was going

on in my life and try to befriend me, but the only ones who succeed was Jack, Collin, Jacob, Embry and Emily and obviously Quil but I had been friends with him since the day I got here.

They probably wanted me to get close to them so I would tell them what's going on but their plan didn't work so they sent Quil who was easily the closest to me, to tell me how they

could protect me and stuff. But where would we go from here? Would they get rid of the vampires or not? Are there such things as vampires? Would anyone else get hurt? And most

importantly if there are vampires why are they after me? But these questions could only be answered by Quil. I looked back up at Quil and even when he's a wolf I recognized the

worried look on his face. When I was zoning out Quil had moved closer to me and now was only about ten feet away. Finally finding my voice I whispered "Quil?" Quil's eyes lit up and

his tail started wagging slightly. His head started moving up and down slowly and I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at him. He started moving cautiously forward and in a few steps

he was towering over me. He lowered his head toward mine, so his face was inches from mine his chocolate brown eyes looking deeply into mine. I reached my handout and gently

scratched behind his ears. When I did that Quil sat down on the ground and rolled over on his back with his feet flying up in the air and I couldn't help but giggle a little bit. "You are so

weirdsometimes I swear," I said rolling my eyes. But none the less I moved over to him and started rubbing his stomach. While I did that he closed his eyes and started humming

slightly. "So even though you're half human, you still like it when people do this for you when you're a wolf?" I asked questioning. He gave a bark that I took for a laugh and rolled back

onto his stomach. He then took is furry tail which was unbelievably strong, and used it to push me up next to his warm, furry side. I lay down on my back and gazed up at the stars.

After gazing up at the stars for awhile, Quil got up, and ran out into the forest. The world suddenly felt very cold and I noticed that a wind had came in and was now ruffling my hair

softly, but I still stayed in the spot that Quil left me. Finally I heard soft footsteps approach me so I tilted my head up and saw the human Quil looking at me, smiling. I sat up and got to

my feet and the second I was up o I was wrapped in huge warm arms. Noting my confusion about being hugged randomly, he whispered into my ear, "You understood." "Well it wasn't

that hard to understand, because of the hint you gave me." He laughed softly and released me. "Let's go up you probably have a couple questions." We climbed up the rope, Quil tried

to help me up but by the time he was done protesting my going up I was already up in the tree house looking down at him. He rolled his eyes and climbed up the rope after me. The

only thing in the tree house was a couple blankets and some pillows. He saw me looking at them and he said "Jake, Embry, and I used to sleep up here all the time and I guess we

forgot about them." I smiled a little bit at the thought of any of them needing blankets. "Quil should we really be out in the middle of the forest, because of……well you know." "I will

explain everything that you want to know in a second, but first if there wasn't vampires hunting you would you have any problem sleeping out here?" "No," so there are such things as

vampires. Wow did my life just get more confusing. Quil and I started lying blankets out and finally Quil motioned for me to lie down and once I did he covered me up with the covers.

Since he was warm enough already he laid right next to me so that I would be warm enough. "Okay to answer your question from before. It's fine that we're out here. I left Sam so he

knows we're out here a note and Embry, Jack, Collin, and Leah areon patrol right now and I can change at moment notice just in case. And plus they just attacked you yesterday so it's

not like they would do it two days in a row." I nodded and shivered slightly at the thought of being attacked again. "Don't worry; we won't let them touch you ever again. All you have

to do is let us do our job, okay." "But what if someone gets hurt?" I couldn't even imagine anyone getting hurt because it hurt me too much to think about it. "One of the cool things

about being a wolf is that we can heel really fast. For example if I accidently cut myself with a knife I would start bleeding but it would be gone in a couple seconds. Being a wolf is also

why I'm so tall, I can run so fast without getting out of breath, I'm so strong and I'm so warm." He demonstrated his warmth by gently brushing his hand against my face. "How warm

are you?" I asked my voice quiet sounding even to me. "Warm enough that if I was human I would die." "When did you change or whatever." "When I was16 it doesn't hurt or

anything except for the first time. When you phase you automatically look older like your 25 years old instead of sixteen. I grew another nine inches in about a month, and unless I

stop phasing I will always have the body of a twenty five year old and in other words I can't die unless I stop phasing. But that is extremely hard to do because we phase when where

mad or whenever we want to. So unless you calm down completely and don't get mad anymore you can't age. Sam is almost there but the only reason he wants to stop phasing is

because he wants to die when Emily dies." I was absorbing all this information like a sponge and my questions just kept coming. "Who's a wolf and what color are they." "Sam is the

black one, Seth is the gray one, Jack is the white one, Jake is the red one, Embry is the dirt colored one, Leah is the one that has pretty much all the browns in her fur, Collin is the light

brown one, Jared is the one that is so brown he looks almost looks black, Paul is the tanone, and Brady is the brown and white one. Sam is the Alpha but once he stops phasing Jake

will." "What's the coolest part about being a wolf and what's the most annoying?" "The most annoying thing is that we can read each other's mind, only when were in wolf form." "So if

you think about everything I ever said to you they'll know what I said just because you thought about it?" "Yeah, but I don't thinkabout it when I'm a wolf." He said smiling slightly.

"The coolest part is the speed, we can run even faster than vampires, and you know how fast they can go." Then my thoughts shot back to when Daniel picked me up and ran with me

and how I almost threw up because he was going so fast. "So there are such things as vampires and they really are after me?" "Yes, and they are after you and we just don't know

why." Once he said that I couldn't stop shaking because I was so scared, so scared of the thought of being captured by vampires. Once he saw my panic, Quil dove under the covers

and tightly hugged me to his chest. "Don't worry sweetie, we won't let them hurt you." He said gently stroking my hair. "Quil, if they kidnap me will they kill me or change me." "Well it

kind of depends but I'm guessing that they would change you into a vampire because I doesn't make any sense for them to want you so much just to kill you." "Why would they want

to change me?" "I don't know Claire, I don't know" "Tell me about vampires" "are you sure you want to know? "He asked "It's a pretty gruesome topic." I nodded into his chest with

the thinking that I should know what I'm up against. "Okay well you can be changed into a vampire only if they bite you, and don't worry you haven't been bitten; if you had you would

defiantly know." He said noting my worried expression. "There are such things as a tracker. They go around looking for humans they either what to change or kill. It's like a chase to

them, for fun." He shuttered slightly under my ear when he said that. "But we don't think a tracker is after you because usually a tracker doesn't have this many other vampires helping

them. So they must want you for another reason, a reason we do not know of. Anyway, not all vampires eat people. Were friends with a coven that lives in Forks, that's just a couple

miles down the road, who only eat animals they call themselves 'vegetarians'. The Cullen's own Forks and we own La Plush because of a treaty we made a long time ago even before I

was born, we also think that if something gets way out of hand with this situation," I quickly pulled my head away from him and looked up into his eyes, terrified"not that it will but just

in case, we think that they will help us," Hearing that I lay back down in Quil's arms. "And that" he concluded "is all that I know about vampires. " "Is there anything else I should

know?" "Well are you sure you want to hear it now you should get some sleep." I nodded into his chest again. "Okay, well the reason that we know about this is because the night

that you got here you were attacked." Then he proceeded to tell me about the night I got here and all about it and when he was done I was covered in cold sweat and was shivering.

"That's enough for one night," he said afterI calmed down a little bit, "but we all have a lot of questions for you, so do you mind going to a pack meeting tomorrow?" I shook my head

into his chest finally feeling relaxed and we laid there together with his arms pulling me into his chest and my head fitting perfectly under is chin, his hand gently stroking my hair but

then I heard a twig crack and I my eyes shot open and I looked up at Quil. He gently pushed my shoulders back down to the ground and said "it was only a deer relax the people who

are patrolling have it all under control. You're really scared aren't you?" "Yes" I whispered and then he was rocking me gently back and forth. He did that for awhile until I was so

relaxed I could hardly move and I whispered to him "thank you for telling me." "Anytime" he replied back. With all the strength I had left I reached my hand out of the covers and took

my hair out if it's regular pony tail and then I collapsed back into Quil's arms. "Wow you're really beautiful" I snorted and said "what planet are you from?" "Don't you think that your

beautiful" "not exactly" "yes you are and someday I'm going to make you see it." "Good luck with that," I heard Quil sigh and I could tell that he was rolling his eyes and that was the

last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

**Hi guys sorry for the wait but I couldn't decide how to write this chapter so I wrote it a couple times and finally decided with this one. Did you like it? I want four reviews before I update again, but more are always welcome. **Thanks,

-Sky and Stars

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight

Ps. I worked on grammar so hopefully that's somewhat better. Grammar is defiantly not my strong suit. And the enter button is my new best friend.


	16. Chapter 16

Burning Chapter 16

Quil's Point of View

She finally fell asleep in my arms. Not that I didn't want her awake, I just knew that she desperately needed to sleep. From the look of it I knew she wasn't getting a lot of sleep lately,

because she's so afraid. Tonight was the first time that I actually saw how afraid she really is. For the last couple of weeks she had to hide her fear and she did a really good job

because I never knew how scared she really was until tonight. She was so scared that even if I just mentioned the word vampire she would have a small panic attach, and I didn't

blame her. If I was attacked, then tied up by vampires who wanted to kidnap me and then a pack of wolves saved me and then I figure out that everyone knows about it and that I

kept the secret for nothing, and to top it off the wolves that saved me are actually my family; I would be scared out of my mind. So I think she has the right to have a panic attacks, I

was just glad that I was with her this time so I could comfort her and take care of her. No doubt that this has happened to her a lot lately, even this morning she told me that she was

feeling really anxious lately, but she didn't know why. Of course I really did know why she was anxious she just felt that she had to tell someone about it but not really tell them

about it if you know what I'm saying. But even though she lied out of what she thought was necessity I was touched that she told me and she opened up to me this morning. I think

she finally is opening up to me and learning to trust me, I thought smiling. In fact I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy that she accepted us and that she knew. The one thing that

was bugging me was that she took it to well, way too well. Even Emily had a hard time believing it at first. She might have guessed it? I wondered to myself, thought it didn't seem

likely. Iguess I would just ask her in the morning. I knew that as she slept she would think of a lot more questions, and in the morning I would be ready to answer them all. Then I

thought ofall the things I didn't tell her in order not to scare her, not that there was any possible way to scare her anymore then she already is. Like how when we're mad we shake

and we could suddenly explode into a wolf and I could hurt her, like Sam hurt Emily all those years ago and how we kill vampires. I knew that would really gross her out, not like she

would ever admit it. She never admits anything that she feels, she only admits it if I ask her straight out and even then she might try to deny it and keep a brave face and not show

that she's scared. I knew that she was going to do this tomorrow at the pack meeting and not show that she's afraid. She can trick anyone, including me when it comes to her feelings,

but after she will need to freak outa little bit and that's when I'll be there. I felt her head move under my chin as she breathed, sighing in her sleep. Suddenly she moved deeper into

my arms, snuggling even farther into my chest. When she lays down next to me with our heads exactly level her feet only went down to my hips because I'm "6-6" and she's only her

cute, adorable five feet tall. Iwrapped my arms tightly around her, careful not to hurt her as I gazed at her beautiful face. Why doesn't she think of herself as pretty? I wondered. Why

is she so shy and why does she get embarrassed whenever I touch her. Even when we were just laying here talking, whenever I touched her or even stroked her hair she would blush

slightly and I don't think she even notices anymore. What happened to her? She used to be the most outgoing kid I've ever seen so why is she so shy now? Something happened to

her to make her this way and I intend to find out, I thought adding yet another promise to the list of promises to her that I had floating around in my head. While I thought about all my

promises to her, I finally fell asleep with Claire in my arms.

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**A/N: DO YOU LIKE QUIL'S OR CLAIRE'S POINT OF VIEW BETTER???????? **

**Quil's Point of View **

I woke up numerous times that night, just to check if Claire was alright but she was fine and stayed in my arms the whole night. I finally woke up and saw on my watch that it was only

seven in the morning. Over the years being a werewolf and patrolling in the early morning hours has made me able to function perfectly with only three hours of sleep, but Claire

couldn't do that and she finally fell asleep at about twelve thirty last night. I raised my head and looked down at Claire, her hair was flying around everywhere in the wind that was

coming from the windows, in knots that without a doubt would take hours to get out. Then I realized that I have never once seen Claire even attempt to comb her hair, even before the

funeral yesterday and now I really don't blame her, but I defiantly didn't want her to cut it off. I gently brushed her hair off her face and out of her eyes, lay back down and kissed her

on the head. About a half an hour later Claire moved around and moaned slightly. I moved my head off hers and then she tilted her head up towards mine and looked at me with big,

bleary, green eyes that took my breath away. "Quil" she mumbled faintly. "Hello there, you can go back to sleep Claire, the meeting doesn't start for another two and a half hours." "No

that's all right" she said pulling out of my arms, sitting up, and rubbing her eyes. "I can't sleep anymore anyway" she said as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. I sat up too and

said "do you want breakfast?" Looking at the ground, she shrugged. "Okay then let's go" I said standing up, not bothering with the blankets. I took her hand and helped her up and

once again she blushed. What's up with that? Not that it's not cute, but she blushes even more then Bella did. Is she not used to all the attention people give her? Whatever, I'll figure

it out eventually. I climbed down the rope ready to catch her if she fell. I turned around and there she was looking up at me with a smile. I laughed and led her though the forest. We

went into my back door and then saw the mess that was everywhere and was suddenly slightly embarrassed. In her room last night I couldn't help but notice how neat it was. There

was nothing on the floor, the only thing not clean about it was the dust and all the boxes stacked up against the far wall. "Sorry about the mess," I noted embarrassed, as I cleaned

off the kitchen table and put all the stuff on it onto the stairs and decided that tomorrow my house was going to be cleaned. "That's all right, it makes it look lived in," she said as she

sat down at the table and I sat down across from her. I looked at her curious face and immediately knew that she had another question for me. "Spit it out Claire," I said with a smile.

She smiled back and asked "what happed to the vampires that attacked me two days ago?" Two days ago? It felt like a lifetime ago. I was expecting this question and eventually

decided to tell her the truth so that's why I said bluntly "we killed them." She looked down and nodded and asked "how do you kill a vampire?" Aw, jeez did she have to be so smart?

"Okay um... We bite them apart and then we burn them." "Is that why I smelled smoke?" "Yeah, but we decided that you shouldn't see that so that's why we had Seth surround you."

"Why Seth?" she asked finally looking up, looking me in the eye. "Well he's the fastest so he could get to you first." "How did you know I was there?" This was the hard part. How do

you tell someone that a pack of wolves has been following you around everywhere you go for the last couple weeks? So that's exactly what I said that it was Leah's turn to follow her

around and since the vampires were downwind to Leah so she didn't smell them. They attacked quickly and she knew that she couldn't take them all on so she seriously hulled butt to

my house and then once we were all in Sam's kitchen we had the fastest pack meeting on the history of the planet.(usually they last for a couple hours) Leah knew that they were

going to run with her east, right in the direction of the large clearing. Since the wind was coming from the East we had Jared and Seth run around the long way so they wouldn't see

him, and then he cut in front of them a couple miles in front of the clearing and howled. They stopped right where we wanted in the clearing. Unfortunately when they stopped Claire

fell of his shoulder, but that was unfortunately unavoidable. But when she fell and she started dragging her on the ground we all got so anxious and mad that we had a hard time

controlling ourselves, even Sam. While they were distracted Collin, Embry, Leah, and I sneaked around towards the west so they wouldn't smell us then when they were dealing with

Claire, who now was crying (which tore my heart open) everyone else surrounded them. Then we came out of the forest and to my surprise she looked at me and held my horribly guilt

stricken, concerned gaze. A look or recondition came over her face and I knew that my eyes had reminded her of me and I got all choked up and then I heard a couple sarcastic

thoughts aimed at me but it was worth it. Then she looked away with her face all red. How could she be embarrassed at a time like this? But I still couldn't help myself from laughing.

Immediately I got yelled at about staying serious buy Sam and then we all started growling at the same time. "Ready Seth" Sam thought and then counted to three and then leaped at

the vampire that was right in front of my Claire. None of us moved but Sam and Seth until Claire was mostly out of the clearing and then we pounced, but I stayed there and watched

Seth curl around her and only once I knew that she was safe did I join the fight, not that there was anything to do. All the vampires were destroyed by now and Jack and Embry were

making a fire. No one wass eriously hurt, but Claire. Much to my dismay, Sam wanted to keep Claire tied up until all the vamps were gone just so she wouldn't hurt herself, which I had

to admit was pretty smart. Claire tended to hurt herself easily.

**aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa**

**A/n italics means wolf thinking.**

"_Okay Seth, untie her and give us a report." _Sam thought. We all watched as Seth gently untied her, and then we saw her small head pop up behind Seth's back, untie her legs but when

she tried to stand up Seth gently pushed her back down

"_Be careful with her, Seth" _I thought as he her head disappeared behind his back. "_What's the damage?" _

"_Well, her nose is pretty bloody, and her wrists have huge bruises from the rope. By the way that's she's wincing I think she has a really painful bruise on her back where he dropped her. She's _

_soaked with mud, she's shivering, her breathing is kind of heavy, and she has blood on her neck, but I don't know where it's coming from. From the looks of it she can't really raise her arms _

_without it hurting, but that will probably fade quickly. The cut on her arm doesn't seem to be bugging her, but it looks worse than it actually is and on the plus side she stopped crying." _

With every injury I felt sicker and sicker and I could feel that everyone else was feeling the same way. As I mentally beat myself up and Embry tried to make me feel better Sam thought

"_Seth, let her up." _

Seth gently nudged her up and I finally got a good look at her. She looked way worse than Seth described. She had blood everywhere on her face, her shirt her hands, everywhere.

She walked slightly with a limp and she looked like she was in pain, I wanted to go over to her and hold her, take care of her, and make sure she was all right. But I couldn't' because

she couldn't know it was me. So when Seth licked her, and I saw the look of astonishment on her face I was ready to kill him.

"_What the heck, Seth?" _

"_What?"_

"_Don't scare her more!" _

"_Aw, lighten up Quil." _

But then Claire said "Well I guess that means that you're not going to eat me." That really got us all worked up because the thought of any of us eating her was positively hilarious. We

laughed and laughed but then she pulled her hand off her neck and saw blood on it and everyone stopped laughing. She flipped her hair forward and then we figured out where the

blood on her neck was coming from. She had a small cut on the back of her head that probably meant she had a killer headache.

"_We need to get her out of here, Paul, Seth, Embry, Collin, Brady go see if there are anymore vamps go." Said Sam _

Once she started following the tracks of the vamp all of us were laughing about this being the weirdest moment of her life, but she had no idea what she was in for. But all the

snickering stopped completely when she said "at least it's not raining." Sam gave me permission to go up to her so I was so close to her that she could feel the heat radiating off of me.

Still walking she looked me in the eye and whispered "thank you." Immediately everyone went off in their head about she didn't need to thank us and they would always do it willingly,

but I knew that deep down everyone thought it was the cutest thing ever. Then ten minutes later it was raining so hard that all of us wolves could see perfectly, but I knew that she

was practically blind. The vampire tracks were going away from sight (for her at least) and soon she couldn't see it anymore because soon she was heading in a completely different

direction from the scent. Now she was wandering aimlessly though the forest. She was still about ten miles from the road. I bet she thought that she was only two or three miles from

the road, that's probably why she's walking so slowly.

"_Well it's not like she can walk any faster, Quil," _I heard Leah say. I argued with some people for awhile and I didn't really notice Claire much and just saw her out of the corner of my

eye, but suddenly she was gone and I heard a small, strangled scream in the distance.

"_Crap"_ we all thought at the same time.

We all dove down the hill and there she was lying at the roots of a tree looking very irritated. She got up with a groan and I couldn't help notice new scratches that the fall had given

her.

"_Okay this has gone on long enough," _thought Sam. "_We have ten miles to cover, maybe more, the rain is getting more dangerous for her, I think she has to start running at least for a mile or _

_two. Jack go tell your mom about the situation. Claire has to see you so she doesn't think we're all missing at the same time because she's far from being stupid. Go out or something, but _

_make sure she see's you. Okay Quil let's go." _

She made it the whole ten miles, and by the time we met up with the other five wolves she looked like she was going to pass out. She wasn't walking straight, and was coughing

pretty bad but even considering that she just sprinted ten miles it was amazing. My baby is strong. I remembered thinking. She ran and checked all the doors but they were

unfortunately they were all locked which was the only flaw in the plan. We thought that she would just break a window and blame it on an accident so no one was ready when she

said thank you and started climbing up the ivy on the side of the house that went up to her window. Once she started climbing I started sounding like her dad,"

"_Claire Young, you get your butt down here this instant, ect." _

But then she flopped though her window and she was gone.

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Of course I left out all the stuff I was feeling and stuff like that when I told Claire the story in my kitchen and when I was done all she said was "oh." "Any more questions?" She

thought for a moment and then said "no." "Cool, I have some questions for you, but after breakfast." I said standing up. "What do you want?" I asked. "I don't care whatever you

want." She answered. "Okay eggs it is, are scrambled all right?" "Yup, do you want help?" "Sure, can you put some toast in the toaster? Bread is on the middle shelf." I told her.

Twenty minutes later we were putting our dishes in the dishwasher and I took her small hand that was surprisingly cold hand and led her to the couch and sat her down. "Shoot" she

said and in the tone of her voice I could tell that she was pretty nervous. For the next half an hour I asked her questions ranging to "why didn't you tell us?" To "how are you feeling?"

Many of which questions she answered truthfully but I knew she lied when I asked how she was feeling. When we were talking we grew closer to each other and when I asked her

how she was I pulled her onto my lap and she turned slightly red. "Then why are you limping?" I asked looking down at her knowing that I had busted her. "Fine, I'm not okay." She

said quietly. YES, she admitted it! "What hurts, sweetie." "My back still hurts and I still have a bit of a headache, just a small one. And I'm limping because I haven't run that far and my

ankle was screwed up at the end of track season last year and I don't think it was ready for ten miles." She whispered. "Do you want some Advil or something?" "Yeah that would be

nice" she said, finally looking me in the eyes. "Okay' let's go" I said picking her up effortlessly. I love being this strong! Finally I could take care of her, because she finally admitted that

she needed it.

**Yeah, so I know it's been a while but I promise I will update later in the week. So what did you think? Sorry this is kind of a filler chapter. I'm not quite sure how the pack meeting will work out yet, so ****some suggestions would be nice. ****Anyway, I want three reviews before I update later this week but as always more are welcome. Thanks to everyone who reads this and especially to those who review. Thanks **

**-Sky and Stars **

**Disclamer: I do not own Twilight **


	17. Chapter 17

Burning Chapter 17

Claire's POV

'This is going to suck', I thought as Quil led me down to the same spot that we held the campfire a couple days ago. That feels like a lifetime ago. I know that everyone is going to fuss over me, and worry about me, and I can only take so much of that before I want to hit someone. Plus, it might be slightly embarrassing, because to help, they have to know everything that happened to me concerning vampires, since everything started.

It was ten forty five when Quil and I walked into the clearing. For the last half an hour Quil had been fussing over me. I really shouldn't have admitted that everything still hurt, because right after I admitted that, Quil scooped me up into his arms and ran up to his bathroom. Then he proceeded to fuss over me like he's my fater. Of course even though it seemed like I hated it, I _really_ thought it was really sweet because he cared so much.

Being fifteen minutes early, we were the first people there, arriving even before Sam. With nothing else to do we both sat down at the same spot that we sat at when we were at the campfire and I slumped against the tree and attempted to relax, while Quil started the fire again.

Five minutes later I was startled out of another bout of daydreaming when I heard a couple of soft footsteps coming through the forest. I opened my eyes and saw Emily, Jack and Sam appear from the trees. Seeing me Emily immediately ran over to me and hugged me.

Once she released I stood up then Jack and Sam bent down and hugged me as well. Sam kissed me on the head, not like Quil does, but in a fatherly way. Then, Jack sat on my left side; Emily went a couple spots down from me and pulled out a notebook and a pen. Sam walked over to Quil and they started talking in harsh whispers that unfortunately couldn't hear…but Jack could…. I leaned up into Jacks hear and whispered "they're talking about me aren't they?" He looked down and me and was surprised at how old he looked, he no longer looked like a little twelve year old kid but looked like a 17 year old teenager. Quil really wasn't kidding when he said that when you first phase it makes you look automatically older.

"Yeah, but Sam's just worried about you, and so is Quil. More than you can possibly imagine," he whispered back to me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Ugh, oh look, here come Collin and Brady." Before I could repeat the question, they started walking over to us.

_Mental Note: ask Quil about what he meant._

"Hey Claire," said Collin slumping down next to me and wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "How ya doin'?"

"All right, what's up with you?"

"Nothin' much…saving people from vampires and changing into a wolf periodically. You know, the usual." When he said that I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Minutes later most people were here, and Collin and Brady wondered off somewhere, so I was left talking to Jack. Jack and I get along really well, a lot better than I thought we would with the age difference, but the truth is, now that he phased he not only looks older than me but on occasion he acts older than me, or at least he tries to.

"So….what grade are you going into this year?" he asked me, now no longer whispering.

"I'm a sophomore this year" I said staring into the fire, for no particular reason.

"So you're _fifteen_?" He continued.

"Nah, I'm fourteen but my birthday is in…two weeks." July fifteenth. The worst day of my life, I hate my birthday. Then why the crap am I telling Jack that my birthday in two weeks? He can think about it and then everyone will know. 'Great, nice going,' I mentally scolded myself.

He was going to ask me something else but just then Sam stood up and everyone went quiet and I felt like laughing randomly, but quickly buried the feeling by digging my nails into my palm. Curse my stupid habit of laughing when I'm nervous, or stressed.

"Kay guys, let's start." Everyone who was standing found a spot on the ground. Paul plopped down next to me and gently wrapped his arm around my waist. After living in La Plush for a couple weeks I have noticed that it's completely normal for guys to touch other girls like that and it isn't meant to be offensive or anything. It's just means that they care about you in a brotherly way, sort of like Sam though he seems more fatherly then brotherly. Pretty much everyone seems to feel brotherly, like Jack, Collin, Brady, Embry, or Jake. But, Quil, now he's just a mystery. His looks and innocent touches seem more personal than anyone else's do and since there so personal I can't help blush nine shades of red whenever he touches or looks at me. Oh, well I'll figure it out eventually.

In the background to my thoughts, I could hear Sam start to explain to everyone what's happened in the last couple days, while I, too nervous to pay attention, happily looked up into the cloudy morning sky and this time it wasn't raining. But just in case I'm defiantly am not ever going to say 'at least it's not raining. I felt my straight, unemotional face turn up into a small grin.

"Claire…Claire!" I broke away from my thoughts, and tried to concentrate on the group…where everyone was staring at me, oh fabulous!

"Yeah?" I said as Sam looked at me with one eyebrow raised.

"Would you care to explain what happened?" I knew he knew that I had no idea what he was talking about it, and by his smile, I knew that he was just joking around.

"The day you went shopping, what happened?" He said again. Not mocking, not teasing, just explaining, and somehow, I wasn't embarrassed.

"Yeah, well…." And on and on I went, explaining what happened the day that Emily and I went shopping, minus the more embarrassing details that I know Emily would never tell them either. The whole time I was talking I looked deep into Sam's eyes, afraid that I won't be able to go on if I looked away. If I saw all the people staring at me again, I think I would have either passed out, or completely have frozen up and not been able to do anything but squeak like a chipmunk that was just sat on.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but at that moment it felt like if I looked away from Sam that's what would happen. Luckily I didn't have to tell them what the phone call said; they had already listened to it. Who knew?

Then Sam told me the whole story of what happened from their point of view. Once he was done with his story, I probably looked like an extremely sun burnt polar bear. I was so embarrassed at everyone caring so much I felt like instigating a big group hug, but instead I quickly swallowed my emotions.

Then Sam asked me if I recognized the guy that was in the store and me, thinking that they knew all of this said, "Yeah, it was the guy from my room."

"What?" everyone said at the same time.

"Yeah…you know it's really, really creepy that you all say things at the same time."

"Never mind about that, you know that guy?" Said Sam, brushing my comment off.

I told them the whole long story, and by the end, the wolves looked like they were having a hard time staying under control. Quil was shaking the most. He sat exactly opposite me in the circle and had his head propped up on both his hands looking at the ground and his whole body was shaking. I wanted to run over to him and wrap my arms around his body as far as they would go, but I knew he wouldn't want me around him when he's shaking. He'd be scared that he'd phase and hurt me. I truly believed that he couldn't do it though. After Sam and Emily's accident, I honestly feel in my heart, that with my around, he wouldn't be able to do…not with me hugging him anyways.

Once everyone got their wits together, well mostly Quil, because I could still feel Jack breathing deeply and Paul actually moved away from me. I gently wrapped my hand around Jack's. He looked at me and smiled and visibly calmed down and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Then Sam wanted to know my story from about two days ago in my point of view. I started once again…telling a long, boring in my opinion, story. No one really said much afterwards. Their expressions were pretty much neutral, but I saw Sam and Jake exchange looks.

Then they moved on to patrol schedules and I noticed that whenever anyone was free to patrol, they would volunteer to do it; it made my heart ache to think they cared about me so much. Then they discussed about how they were going to take care of this situation, and it didn't sound promising. From the sound of it, the only way we could end this was to kill the one controlled this operation.

They asked me if I had ever met a vampire before, and all these other questions, like whether I've ever saw anything unusual the day of the fire, or whether I ever felt I was being followed. I thought back to the day that I have been trying to forget for the last couple weeks, how my mom had said I was hopeless, and how Sean had talked to me through the game. Yet I knew that he wasn't acting weird, and it's not like he could be a vampire, so I quickly dismissed the thought of him having anything to do with this.

I said no and Sam sighed, "Okay then there's one thing more to do then. Claire, there is absolutely no leaving the house without one of us, got it? And even when you're in the house someone should probably be with you. But that will probably end up being Jack, Quil, or me." I was going to ask about Quil again, but I figured that everyone would probably just ignore it anyway, like they always seem to do when I ask any questions about Quil. So I just nodded instead, and finally, after what felt like the longest meeting in the terrible history of long meetings, it was over.

Most of us headed back to Emily and Sam's house for lunch, while Jake, Seth, Embry, and Jack headed off to patrol. I walked back to the house in between Erica and Emily, since I defiantly did not want to talk to Quil right now.

I ate sandwiches with everyone else and then quietly excused myself to go take a shower and get my nose into a book. Forgetting the last few hours would be nice…even if it was only temporary.

Quil's POV

I couldn't figure out why she wouldn't talk to me. I wondered about her as she ran up into her room, probably to read. I'm sure that she's no longer comfortable with me around because she slept next to me last night, and now she feels all awkward. Unfortunately for her, she's going to be seeing a lot of me. There is no way I'm going to let her out of my sight for more than a couple hours.

I stayed at Sam and Emily's place till six in the evening, when it was my turn to patrol. The whole time I was a wolf, I tried my hardest not to think about what Claire said to me last night. If she ever found out that they knew what she said to me, she would never trust me again. So I did what I always so when I don't want anyone to hear my thoughts—I thought about _walls_ for five hours, which drove Sam, Brady, and Paul insane, but it was worth it.

After five hours of running around I was ready to eat again. We all went back to Emily and Sam's house. We ate the left over's of dinner. Soon, I got impatient. I asked Sam if I could see Claire.

He sighed and looked like an old man for a second. I automatically felt bad, though I didn't know what he was about say. "Quil you don't have to ask me if you can see Claire. Though I care about her as a father, I'm not her real dad. We all know that you would never hurt her. I trust you with her; just don't do anything to break that trust." So pretty much, he _was_ being the father— in other words if you hurt her I will personally cut your tail off. I nodded and ran up the maze into Claire's room.

She was curled up on her bed with a book in her hands; she momentarily took my breath away. I quickly pushed all the thoughts of how beautiful she is out of my head. I had to remind myself that she is only fourteen.

"Hey, Claire" I said coming over and sitting cross-legged on the space next to her. It took her a moment to tear herself away from of what looked like a horror story. "Hey, Quil what's up?" She said, while sitting up, putting the book down, and stretching.

"You're up, that's what's up. It's eleven thirty why aren't you asleep?" I was fretting, I know. There I go being a father again. I wish I didn't have to be a father around her and I could just be a friend, hopefully her best friend, but I'll have to worry about that after this situation.

She shrugged, "I don't know…just can't sleep I guess."

"Well, I have a feeling that reading scary books at midnight are not going to help you sleep, " I laughed. I suddenly snatched the book from her hands. She looked up at me with puppy dog eyes and said "please give it back." I shook my head with a bit of an evil smile and put the book on top of her book shelve where she couldn't reach unless I picked her up. She did exactly the opposite of what I thought she would do she hopped out of bed walked past me and started climbing up the shelves until she was at the top. I quickly picked her off it from behind, took her into my arms and started whirling her around until I had her giggling so hard it sounded like she was having trouble breathing. I jumped back onto her bed with her still in my arms, and she was still sweetly giggling, a sound that lifted my heart.

I knew I had a silly smile on my face, but I couldn't help it. We stayed like that, in comfortable silence, as the laughter died down. Then, she yawned.

"Get into bed. I'll go blow out all the candles." Since Claire doesn't have any electricity in her room since it's in the attic, she has ten or fifteen candles spread out around the room, creating shadows that danced around the room. No wonder she can't sleep.

She starting muttering something about "pushy wolves". I smiled to myself as I blew out all the candles but one…just in case she had to get up in the middle of the night. When I came back to her, she was already asleep. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was slower and relaxed. Even though she probably no longer felt my presence, I sat on her bed and held her hand until I was positive that she was asleep. I silently kissed her on her forehead and crept out of room. Once back into the kitchen I wished Sam good night and then, of course, worried about Claire the whole walk home.

Claire's Point of View

I woke up three hours after Quil left. Now I wish he was still here because I just can't sleep. Instead of reading my book partly because I don't want to climb up the bookshelf again, which is admittedly part of the reason I can't sleep, I headed down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Not knowing anyone was there, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw Sam sitting on the kitchen table...he was eating _peanut butter_.

"Hey Claire, Why are you still up?" He asked.

"Can't sleep" I replied, sitting on the table next to him. I silently wondered if the table would hold the combined weight.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he took another spoon out of the drawer and handed it to me. I immediately dug into the peanut butter.

"Just anxious I guess...why are you still up?"

"I'm patrolling. Remember at the meeting today."

"Oh right, making sure that a vampire doesn't kill me when I'm asleep."

"What are you anxious about?" he asked as he licked peanut butter off the spoon.

"I don't know" I said, lying. I was kind of surprised that he needed to ask why I'm anxious, since in my opinion it's pretty obvious.

"Claire" he said, as he put one long arm around me and hugged me to his side. "There is nothing to be afraid of, I promise. We're going to take care of this."He said looking down at me. I awkwardly looked back up at him and nodded as he released me.

"So you're patrolling while eating peanut butter, interesting method of defense against a vampire." I said raising one eyebrow at him. "I was thinking that I could throw the peanut butter at them and they might be so disgusted by the smell of real food they might surrender, and run away." He laughed.

I just stared at him and finally said "good luck with that." He continued to chuckle softly at his own joke.

Surprisingly, we stayed down in the kitchen, eating peanut butter, and talking softly for two hours. Then, Seth, tumbled through the door with a panicked look across his face.

**Hi guys, crap I am soooooooooo sorry that I haven't updated in so long, stupid midterms and stupid eight test's or quizzes in one week. Oh well I'm updating now. Pleeeeeease review, pretty, pretty please I would love you forever if you did. Thanks so much for staying with me while I haven't updated in so long. Maybe I'll update next week. I want two reviews before I update again, but as always more are welcome. And a huge thanks to Wait for the Stars for editing and putting her own flair into this chapter, you rock. Thanks guys, **

**-Sky and Stars**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**


	18. Chapter 18

Burning Chapter 18

Claire's Point of View

Seth tumbled into the kitchen with a panicked look on his face. Oh great, not again I thought thinking that this is another attack but what Seth said surprised me. "Sam...the Cullen's want

to talk to you….Edward says it's important. Go meet them at the border line." Sam hopped off the table and told me to go back upstairs and then told Seth to stay in the kitchen. Sam

rushed out the door and closed it with a loud bang. I sighed, said good night to Seth and climbed back up into my room. It's the Cullen's, right? What can they tell Sam that's important?

Hopefully nothing about me. Having nothing else to do I took a shower, but even then it was only six in the morning when I was done. I made my bed and with nothing else to do climbed

up the bookshelf, crashed on my bed, and began to read.

Sam's Point of View

What could they possibly tell us that's important? With any luck they know something that's happening to Claire. I quickly phased and sprinted to the border line where all the Cullen's

were standing waiting for me. "Hello Sam" Carlisle said "you might want to be human for this." I nodded, ran into the woods, phased back, got dressed and came back out to all the

Cullen's who were still staring at me. We looked at each other for a while until I finally said "so what's going on?" They exchanged looks and apparently nominated Carlisle to tell me.

Carlisle looked me in the eyes, sighed and said "Do you know a girl who is pretty short, green eyes, brown long hair that's kind of frizzy?" Fighting panic I nodded and said "Claire?" He

raised one eyebrow and said "Quil's imprint. I thought her family moved to Virginia when they found out about you guys being wolves and that Quil imprinted on her?" "They did, her

family died in a fire at her house and she's living with us now." He nodded and said "Alice had a vision about her." What? How is that possible? If Alice can see her future then that

means……. My mind suddenly turned off and I looked at Edward. "You're right Sam, as of right now her future doesn't involve wolves."

When I ran home later I still couldn't forget the image of Claire that Edward put into my head. Claire was lying on the floor of an empty cellar with her arms and legs tied together and

gagged- she was hopfully sleeping and not unconsious. She was covered with mud and dirt and I thought that I could see some blood mixed in- hopefully not hers. She looked deathly

pale and she was shivering. Even though she was sleeping (or unconsious) she still looked extremely scared. I tried to shake the image away but it stayed permanent in my head. Now i

have the unfortunate duty of telling Quil and i know that expecially Quil is not going to take this well. On the plus side at least we know that they don't want to kill Claire.

Claire's Point of View

They are having a pack meeting without me and they left me at home with crazy stalking vampire that could come into the house and kill me at any second. Do I sound like a person that

should be left home alone? That's what I thought, but yet their doing it and if I die or I'm kidnapped, I'm blaming them. As I think this while lying on my bed I know I'm just thinking this

because I'm scared. Sam said that he could be here in seconds if anything happened. He even locked the doors and the windows just in case and if I did die or get kidnapped by vampires

I know that I could never really blame them. They're trying the hardest they can and anyway Sam said that he only wanted to show the guys something quick and that it should only take

about ten minutes, but a lot can happen in ten minutes. I stopped pacing around my room, grabbed my book from off my bed and tried to read and to forget my panic.

Sam's Point of View

I rushed to the meeting place that I set after I told Claire she would be home alone. I was going to make this meeting as quick as possible just in case she's kidnapped, but that probably

won't happen since they just attacked her two or three days ago. I ran into the circle and saw that I was almost the last one here which is very strange because I'm usually the first. A

couple more people arrived which was good because I couldn't stop that image from coming up into my head for much longer. I explained about the Cullen's and everything and then I

showed then the picture in my head… then nothing. Everything went silent which is an insanely rare thing when your mind is connected with a huge group of people. Just as I was

expected Quil was the first one to react. "Where is she right now? She's home alone right now, isn't she? How is that possible? Her destiny is is to be with me for the rest of her life. What

if she's being kidnapped right now? Why did you leave her home alone? Oh, God she must be really scared. She needs me, can I go, Sam she needs me?" His questions went on and on

for longer and as I looked at him I saw him look more and more sick. Finally getting irritated with his comments and questions I screamed into my head "Quil, the sooner that you shut up

the sooner you can go to her." That shut him up. "Okay guys, I'm stepping up protection around her more. I'm not sure that they know where she lives yet but just in case, I'm going to

have her change houses every night or two just to confuse them a little. Someone is going to be with her constantly, no matter what, okay guys. I'll keep Claire at our house tonight, Quil

will take her the next day, then who will take her….?" "Billy and I will take her. We have an extra room and anyway Billy loves her." "Thanks Jake and then Quil will take her again and

then she'll come to our house and then we'll go from there. Any questions? Cool, see you tonight at dinner." Everyone phased back but Quil who just took off running and I ran after him.

"Quil, don't tell her about the future that Alice saw for her and tell her that she'll be changing houses."He didn't think anything back, but I knew that he heard me so I phased back and

left him to his thoughts.

Quil's Point of View

Sam phased back and I just kept running until I saw my house, phased, got dressed and sprinted down the street to Claire's house. I tore up the stairs and to my relief Claire was once

again curled up on her bed with a book in hand. I stood at the door and cleared my face of panic so she wouldn't think that anything is wrong. I jumped on her bed which made her jump

out of her skin. I smiled down at her and said sorry. "Oh, it's okay. What's up?" "Nothing much at the meeting Sam just said that one of you should be with you at all times and that you'll

be changing houses every night." "Okay, then but why?" "I don't know something about how the vampires shouldn't know where you actually live or something." Believing my lie, she

nodded and looked away from me. I instantly felt terrible for lying to her but Sam ordered me not to tell her the truth so it's not like I can do anything about it. I sighed and I saw her

snap her head up and was once again looking at me. "What's wrong?" "What?" "You always sigh when you're mad or upset about something." "No I don't" "do too" "do not" "do too" "do

not" "do too." "Staring contest if you win I'll tell you, if not I won't tell you." "Fine, one, two, three, go." We stared deep into each other's eyes and I saw that her eyes weren't entirely

purely green like I thought, but they had specks of yellow and I hint of blue in them. We stayed like that for a couple moments and my eyes we're burning so bad that tears were welling

up in my eyes but, I couldn't lose because Sam ordered me not to tell her. While staring into her eyes I also noticed how tired her eyes looked and how there was dark under her eyes. I'll

ask her about it when where done I promised myself. Tears were now falling down her cheeks and finally she blinked and she immediately wiped the tears off and I couldn't help but be

disappointed because I wanted to wipe away her tears for her. "Fine, but you did admit that something was bugging you and I guess that's a start." I laughed and then remembered the

dark circles under her eyes and I felt my smile turn into a frown. I gently put my hand under her eyes and this time I was pleased that she didn't blush too badly and gently rubbed under

eyes. "Did you sleep at all last night?" "Yeah" she whispered, but I knew that she was lying. "How much?" "Three hours" "You should go to sleep Claire" "Quil, it's like one in the

afternoon if I go to sleep now I won't be able to sleep tonight." I sighed again and she raised one eyebrow at me and returned to her book. She's right I realized I do sigh when I'm

upset or mad, she knew that and even I didn't know that. I watched her read for a little while and from her face I could always tell what was happening. When something was funny she

would smile slightly, if she was confused she would frown slightly and her eyebrows would come together, if she was sad there would be no emotion on her face. I didn't realize that time

was flying by and I was surprised when she closed the book and sat up. When she saw me she jumped and said "you'll still here, you should have told me that I was boring you to

death." "It wasn't boring your face is very interesting when you read, but then again everything you do fascinates me." Oh God did I really just say that. It was a good thing that she

didn't become freaked out all she did was go slightly pink and smiled slightly. "What do you want to do?" I asked but my question was answered my by stomach. She smiled slightly and

we both headed down to the kitchen. I was watching her walk to look for any signs of pain and I was pleased that I didn't see any, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. We walked

into the kitchen and I wasn't surprised that there were already people there Jack, Embry, Jake and Seth were sitting at the table eating muffins and laughing about a joke. Emily was just

taking more muffing out of the oven. "Hey guys, you hungry." She handed us both gigantic muffins and Claire hopped up on the counter and dug in. We hung out with the guys for the

rest of the day. We had dinner and around midnight Claire left the party, probably to go to sleep. She looked excused all day. I would follow her, but I had a feeling that she just wanted

to be alone. An hour later I left, excited for tomorrow because tomorrow Claire would stay with me. I smiled the whole way home.

**Hey, guys. What's up? SO sorry it took so long to update I had really, really bad writer's block. Still do actually which is why this chapter was so crappy. Oh, well the next one will be better because the next chapter is not a filler chapter. Please, please, please review because I will love you forever if you do. I want two before I update again but as always more are welcome. Which will hopefully be next weekend, maybe this weekend since I'm on spring break. ****Thanks guys, **

**-Sky and Stars **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **


	19. Chapter 19

Burning Chapter 19

Claire's Point of View

The next day, after dinner, I went over to Quil's house. For some stupid, unknown reason I was horribly nervous. It was already pretty late, almost ten thirty, so I guess we won't have to

say anything much to each other because I bet he's going to want me to go to sleep early. For the first time in my life I have no objections to that. I didn't sleep well again last night,

plagued by dreams. Right now I'm only running on about four hours of sleep from last night and only about 10 hours for the last three days, but for some reason I still can't sleep. The

dreams are always the same or at least have the same concept. Last night I dreamt I was running in the forest, which would actually be quite normal for me if this vampire wasn't hunting

me. Anyway, I'm running after Quil when he's a wolf. He kept getting farther and farther away from me. I was screaming for him and I knew he should be able to hear me, but he never

glanced back. Even when the vampire tackled me and started dragging me away, he never looked back or even noticed me. Or I dream that the vampires come into the house or

anywhere I am and kidnap me. For some reason I never actually see the vampires and everything is pitch black so I can't see anything and I also never hear anything. It's like nothing but

me exists, all I feel is the vampire's cold hands holding me down. Those are all scary and they just seem to get more dramatic and scary every night, but the dream that really scares me is

the one where I see my family burning. I'm standing on the street facing my old house and the whole house is up in flames. All the houses that used to surround us are gone; there are

no people in sight, its pitch black so the only light is coming from the fire, which is twisting shadows onto the pavement. My family is standing just inside the burning house, not doing

anything but staring at me and that's the scariest part. But last night was different, they started hissing at me and yelling at me, blaming me and once I woke up I wished that they would

had just stayed quiet. When I wake up I'm always shaking, cold and drenched in sweat and then I always wish that Quil was there with me, which is just plain stupid. It's actually made

me afraid to go to sleep, not that I would ever tell Quil that. He'd insist that he would sleep with me, not that I would actually really hate it. He is my best friend I have, since all my so

called friends in Virginia have lost contact with me. I always feel safe around him. Sometimes I actually can't remember what life was without him.

Quil pulled into his driveway and we piled out, me carrying my backpack full of clothes and books for three days which is actually quite a lot of stuff. Quil got to the door in front of me so

he opened the door for me, something I'll have to get used to. Usually I'm the one opening doors for other people. Wordlessly he led me up the stairs. I've only been in his house once

and it was pretty messy, but now it's fairly clean. When Quil is in my room I know he thinks it's too clean. I'm a relatively clean person, but even I think that my room is too clean, it's just I

don't have enough stuff to make it messy. All I have is some clothes, a lot of books, my cello, and some music and that's it. As I walked up the stairs of Quil's house, I couldn't help but

notice that his house looked too clean. I figure that he probably only cleaned it because I'm coming over and he thought I actually like it really clean. When I realized this I couldn't help

but role my eyes. We got to the top of the stairs and Quil led me down the hall to the right, then opened the door into a small guest room and turned to face me. Then I noticed how tired

he looked. He was walking slightly slumped, like his feet couldn't support him, and he and bruise like bags under his eyes. "Quil are you okay?" I asked while trying to figure out what to

do if he suddenly fell over, it's not like I can pick him up. "Yeah, I'm fine." He said, shooting me a tired and halfhearted grin. I just stared at him and raised my eyebrows, but he didn't say

anything and I know that when he's tired he hates arguing so I dropped it and walked through the doorway into the room. It had obviously not been used in a while. It was hot and

musty and there was a fine layer of dust over everything, but I don't really care if it's clean or not. I put my bag on the bed then turned around to see Quil leaning against the doorframe,

looking exhausted. "Quil, go to sleep." I said, but of course he insisted on protesting. "I can't, I have to make sure you're okay." He said groggily. He leaned his head against the

doorframe, and closed his eyes. Sighing, I took his hand and started pulling him towards his room. Usually I would not be able to do this, but he was so tired that he let me pull him down

the hall. I turned into his room and then it looked more like him. There was stuff and clothes thrown around the floor, so much that I had difficulty getting him to his bed, which was luckily

free of stuff. I pushed him onto his bed and he immediately laid down and fell asleep. With nothing else to do, I turned around to leave, but suddenly Quil grabbed me from behind.

Obviously still asleep, he grabbed my waist and pulled me onto the bed next to him. He turned onto his right side, and took the arm that was not already holding on to me and wrapped it

tightly around me. He pulled me onto my left side so I was squished into his chest, my head leaning against his heart so I could faintly hear it beating in the background. I struggled to get

up, but the only thing I could move was my legs and it's not like I can kick him awake, I doubt he would even be able to feel. Right when I thought this situation couldn't get any worse,

Quil wrapped his legs around mine so that they were intertwined within each other's, while he still managed to hold my legs underneath his. I struggled against him as hard as I could,

but even then he wouldn't let go. Great, Quil's even stronger than me when he sleeps. I started whispering his name and then just started saying it when he wouldn't wake up and even

when I was almost shouting he wouldn't wake up. With nothing else to do I looked at the clock over Quil's shoulder and saw it was only eleven. I've been here only for a half hour. I

groaned and sagged against Quil, letting him hold me. I watched the clock tick by minute by minute, still unable to sleep. Partially because of the heat of Quil and because I know the

second that I closed my eyes the dreams would be back taunting me. I think I dosed a little bit, but I think the longest period of time I slept that night was for twenty minutes and even

then the dreams would start and my eyes would shoot open again. Every hour or so I would try to struggle out of Quil's arms, but eventually just went with it. Right then I learned that I

really actually liked sleeping like this and that I've never before been closer to anyone then Quil before. He knows almost everything about me and I know almost everything about him.

There are no secrets anymore, well just a couple, but I try to be as open as possible to him because I hate lying to him, like I know he hates lying to me. We even formed a way of

deciding what's right; staring contests, who ever blinks is wrong. We can always tell when the other is lying. Sure he knows everything about me as in what I like to eat, favorite color,

what clothes I like to wear, and almost all my weird and nervous habits, but I just can't seem to be able to hold a heart to heart conversation with him or let him know my emotions. I've

never wanted to be closer to anyone like I want to be closer to Quil. I've never let anyone into my little bubble that's my life and maybe it's time to let Quil into my mind a little bit more,

but how would I do that? I guess that a good way to start is to try to be more open and try to tell him about the dreams and admittedly, I guess, letting Quil take care of me sometimes

and not being so shy and scared around him would be another way of opening up. Why am I so shy around him sometimes anyway? I thought about this question for a while and finally

came up with the conclusion that maybe it's because he's so personal with me. The way he sometimes looks at me and the way he touches me is always so personal and like he always

knows what to do to make me feel better, almost like he knows me better than I know myself. For the last couple days we've actually been finishing each other's sentences and saying

things at the same time. Maybe I just need to stop being so shy and awkward around him and start being more of myself. Right then I was leaning as far away from Quil as I could, but

then I leaned as far into him as I could so that I could clearly hear his heart beating. With me closer to him, he wrapped his arms and legs tighter around me and I embraced it instead

trying to push him away. I glanced quickly at the clock again and saw it was already four in the morning. I know that Quil usually gets up pretty early because he doesn't want to be the

last one to my house because he doesn't want to cook breakfast for everyone. Neither Quil nor I are great cooks. For the next couple hours I just laid next to Quil in complete peace and

completely relaxed, but careful not to go to sleep. At around six in the morning my eyes got heavy so I shut my eyes, telling myself that I would just rest my eyes. It seemed like a second

later when a loud ringing went off above my head. It kept ringing and ringing, but I couldn't turn it off because Quil's arms were still around me. Finally Quil took the arm that was on top

of me and hit the alarm clock, putting us back into silence. We stayed quiet for a while, but I knew that he knew I was here, but he didn't try to move away from me either. I moved

slightly away from him just because I realized that I was sweating and the heat was starting to get to me. I was almost asleep again when Quil said "Claire did you come in here in the

middle of the night?" he asked. I slowly opened my eyes, the lack of sleep for the last couple days finally hitting me. "Not exactly," I said sitting up. Once I was finally free of him, I didn't

want him to let go. He took his legs off of mine and gently put his hands on my back and helped me sit up. I dangled my feet of his bed, completely exhausted. I was so tired that I think

sleeping actually made it worse, my thoughts were muddled, and it almost felt like it hurt to move my body because I was so tired. "You know how you were really tired last night?" "Yeah,

didn't I get you to your room and then I went immediately to sleep?" "Ugh, not exactly." Quil moved over and sat next to me, with his feet firmly on the ground. I tried to look at him and

not at the ground, but it took to much effort for my tired body to raise my head. I couldn't hear that well either, Quil's voice sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel. When I

heard myself talk I sounded exhausted, even to myself. "Well you got to my door and I told you you should go to sleep, but you said that you had to make sure I was alright, so I pulled

you down to your room, but then when I went to leave you grabbed onto me and held me there for the night. "Oh… sorry about that." "That's okay." Suddenly he put his hand on my

cheek and pulled my face up to look him in the eyes. "God, Claire you're exhausted, did you sleep at all last night." I nodded, too weak to say anything. "How much?" "Maybe about two

hours," I mumbled, since the clock said 7:30. He sighed and I knew that he blamed himself for my not sleeping. "Quil it's not your fault, I just haven't been sleeping well for awhile. "How

long is awhile?" "Four or five days." I moved to stand up and made it half way before I got dizzy and slumped back down. Quil sighed again. He put lowered me onto the bed and said "Go

back to sleep Claire," as he took off my shoes. I was going to protest but my mind wasn't working so I couldn't think of anything to say. Quil through a blanket over me and I felt him crawl

onto the bed next to me, but not touching me. He took my hair out of a ponytail and started playing with it. That was all the encouragement I needed to melt back into sleep.

I woke up in a panic. The blanket was twisted around me and I was covered in cold sweat, tears were leaking out of my eyes and I seriously thought I was going to throw up any second

here and I was trembling almost uncontrollably. Quil was no longer next to me. I untwisted myself and lay down onto the cold ground. This dream was different, all the regular stuff

happened but this time I saw everyone I know laying around Sam and Emily's house, dead. I dry heaved a couple times and realized how lucky I was that there was nothing in my

stomach. From my position on the floor I saw that it was almost noon. I calmed down a little bit and pried myself off the floor. I hobbled down the hallway, grabbed some clothes, and

headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower. After the shower and some time to organize my thoughts I felt a lot better, but I still felt exhausted and slightly nauseous. I also couldn't

stop shaking and was kinda jumpy. I wandered down the stairs and saw Quil was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. I sat down next to him, looked at him and quickly

flinched away. Great, now every time I see his face I'm going to see his body drained of blood with his dead eyes staring blankly into the distance. I flinched again just thinking about it.

But what if that really happens and everyone dies because of me? I gave this a thought and came with the conclusion that this could very well happen. I couldn't help it and started

hyperventilating. I quickly got up and tried to walk slowly up the stairs in order not to alert Quil, but I could already feel his eyes following me. I finally shut the door to my room and had a

full blown panic attack, complete with pacing, hyperventilating, a little bit of crying, and dry heaving. Finally I was done freaking out had sagged onto the bed, completely drained. I was

kind of surprised that Quil didn't come up to see me, but I think he knew that I wanted to be alone for a while and he was right, as always. I moved my eyes, unable to move my body to

look at the clock and saw it was just after three in the afternoon. Even though I promised myself I would open up to Quil last night, I couldn't get myself to face him right now. I weakly

pulled a book out of my bag and began to read. I was almost completely lost in a book and then heard Quil nock on the door and quietly come in. I pulled myself away from the book and

watched Quil come over and sit next to me on the bed. "You okay?" he asked, staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah, I'm fine" I said while rolling on to my stomach. I didn't want to look at Quil,

scared of what I might see. Suddenly he popped of the bed, nearly scaring me half to death, and started pacing around the room, shaking. Instead of looking at him I looked at the floor

he was pacing. After most of his anger was gone and was no longer pacing he said "Claire, I know that your freaking out about this vampire, I would be incredibly scared if this was

happening to me, too. But, Claire you need to know that we are going to take care of this, we will not let this thing ever touch you again. I know you're not fine, and I also know that it's

not completely about the vampire. There's something else going on that you're not telling me. I know you're scared of this vampire, but are you actually scared enough to almost stop

eating, and to not sleep. I'm sorry that I'm being like this, but, Claire, I have to know what is going on in your head. I have to understand. "How ironic he actually thought of some of the

things I thought of last night. He sighed and sat back down on the bed, while I rolled over on my back. He gently took my hand and said sorry, but I was already telling him everything.

When I was done with what turned out to be a horribly long story, he just wrapped his arms around me and didn't say anything.

**Hey, guys sorry it's been so long, but it's finally summer vacation and I'm going to try to finish this story before school starts again. Anyway, sorry for such a boring chapter I swear we are finally getting into the good part in the next couple chapters. It would be really, really, really, nice if someone reviewed. So please, please, please review and I will update next week. Thanks guys, **

**-Sky and Stars **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **


	20. Chapter 20

Burning Chapter 20

Claire's Point of View

I barley slept at all at Billy's house. I stayed up most the night reading and wishing I were at Quil's house. Quil tried to convince Sam to let me stay at his house for another night, but Sam

said that it would be too dangerous and to be patient. Since Erica and Jake have their own home, Jake stayed the night at Billy's house, just for some extra protection, and Erica stayed

the night at my house, probably sleeping in my room. Jake tends to be just a tad over protective of Erica, especially now that there are vampires running around. Jake's a pretty fun guy to

be around and it was after two in the morning before we finally stopped playing Monopoly, because we were determined to finish a game for once. I probably fell asleep around six in the

morning and then Billy woke me up at seven to get to breakfast. The only reason, I could actually walk and open my eyes because I had four cups of coffee, a coke, and an Energy Vitamin

Water and even then I was still tired, but no longer exhausted and I don't even like coffee. It's quite odd to go to your own house to breakfast when you're not allowed to sleep there.

While I got some food, mostly because I kept hearing Quil's voice in my head saying I'm not eating enough, but he doesn't know of my usual love affair with food. I knew that Quil was

watching me looking for signs of exhaustion. Just because I was board, I ate a lot of food, not up to the guy's usual amount, but for normal people it was a lot of food. I stayed the

afternoon and through dinner because Quil was patrolling for a couple hours. My hours spent at my house were used for hanging out with Emily in the kitchen, talking with Billy, who had

become like my grandpa, and watching T.V with Jack in the basement, all the while trying not to fall asleep. We left early from dinner, because I was certain that I was about to pass out

any second. Every ones' voices sounded like they were coming through long tunnels and it felt like I was floating and I would either blink 6 times a second or not at all. I got into the car

and couldn't even say anything because I was so tired, it felt like my mouth wasn't working. I didn't notice when we stopped and suddenly I was supported by something strong and

warm. From my blurry vision I could vaguely make out Quil's worried face looking down at me and I think that I saw his lips move in what seemed like he was saying my name, but I was

never sure if I was right.

Dead, all dead, blood everywhere, my mom saying I should be like Charlotte and Jason, red eyes, Quil running away from me, fire, heat, Jake and Billy laughing, darkness, pain, funeral, Sean, Emily, cold, ropes, nothing, Sam, rain, Seth, fur, wolves, Quil, brown eyes, twisting colors, football, forest, cheerleading, falling, mud, knife, dad, bruises, scars, secrets, death, burning, everything burning……..

"CLAIRE, CLAIRE" said a voice though somewhere in my dream, sounding remarkably like Quil's voice when he's freaking out. I vaguely felt someone stroking my hair away from my face

and somehow holding me down at the same time, but the thing that was holding me down wasn't the cold arms of a vampire, it was hot. The voice was coming closer now, sounding more

like Quil than ever, now I could hear him saying something, but I couldn't make out words except when I heard my name. I opened my eyes and was immediately sure that I was no

longer dreaming. The first thing I saw was Quil's face leaning over me, one hand pushing the hair away from my face, the other arm and one of his legs across me so it was difficult to

move. It felt like sweat was dripping off of me, I was trembling so much that I felt weak, the covers were on the floor and it looked like they were ripped off the bed. I tried to say Quil's

name, but nothing came out because my throat was so raspy and dry that I couldn't talk. Quil kissed me on the head once and got off of me. It felt like seconds later when we came back

with a glass of water. He wouldn't let me move by myself; he picked me up and cradled me in his arms and held the glass up to my lips. Once I could at least speak again I asked Quil in

my still raspy and cracked voice "What's goin' on?" I mumbled, my voice also affected by sleep. "Claire, you we're screaming, so loud. I thought you were being murdered, but when I got

to your room, you were thrashing and screaming, saying stuff I couldn't understand, yelling for me, so I tried to hold you down so you wouldn't hurt yourself, but you started struggling

harder. I tried to get you to wake up for at least a half hour and I was scared that you wouldn't, but you finally did." He said kissing me on the cheek. "I guess I don't blame you for not

sleeping, what was it about?" I told him about the confusion that was my dream and every once in awhile he would make me stop and drink water. When I was done he just stared into

space and said "you know I'll never leave you, Claire, right?" he said and looked frantically down at me, his eyes searching my face. "I don't know." I said not being able to come up with

an answer. "I've never really thought about it before." "I think your internal mind thinks that I'll leave, since you always see me running away from you, but Claire, it's not true. I will never

leave you, and if someone takes you I promise, I will get you back." He said this with so much meaning, heart, and strength that I found myself fighting back tears. We went back into

silence and soon I found myself fast asleep in his arms.

I woke up again in Quil's arms, barely remembering the night, just remembering my dream and that Quil said he would never leave me. After Quil came, I didn't have any dreams and

finally slept peacefully. I looked up and saw Quil's smiling face looking down at me. I dozed in and out a couple times and after a few of those finally woke up for good. I glanced at the

clock and was surprised when it said it was almost 1:30. Wow, I really did need sleep. "You can go back to sleep if you want to, sweetie." Quil said from above me, but I lazily shook my

head. He pulled me down the stairs and made me eat something, but I was still trembling slightly and still felt slightly nauseous, so I didn't eat that much, but he seemed satisfied that I

at least ate something. Once I took a shower and got changed it was already three, so we just decided it was time for me to head home. Nobody was home, except for Collin and Leah

who were playing video games in the basement, Emily was at work and Jack, Sam and everyone else were either patrolling, at home, or working. I read for the rest of the day and Quil

stayed with me reading over my shoulder, the only time we came down was for dinner and even then the second we were done, we headed up to my room again. It was nine o'clock,

when I was beginning to have trouble keeping my eyes open, that Sam yelled from downstairs for Quil. He sighed and got off my bed, basically telling me with his sigh that he didn't want

to go. "Sam might need me to go patrol, but go to sleep if you can, don't worry, you'll be okay." He kissed me on the head and silently left the room, without a backwards glance. For

some reason it felt like I wasn't going to see him again, but quickly shrugged the feeling off.

**BANG! **

It enough to wake me up, where I found myself sprawled out on my bed with a book in my hand. I closed my eyes again, realizing it was the door slamming and that it was just some of

the guys coming back from patrolling. I snapped my head up again as I heard another bang and then a small thud shortly after, what are these guys going? Not being able to go back to

sleep again, I figured that I should at least see what there're doing. I crept down the stair case and when I was just about to walk down the stairway into the kitchen, I heard low voices

that obviously weren't any of the guys. I flattened myself against the wall and peeked down the staircase and what I saw almost scared the crap out of me. Jack was lying unconscious

on the floor, with a bloody gash in his head, with five obviously human men standing around him. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but the first thing that popped into my head was

get to Quil's house. He always said that if I was upset or in trouble of any sort that I should go to his house, but how could I get out without them seeing me. Now that this wasn't a

nightmare, for some reason I actually felt steady and calm, ready to handle any situation. Maybe because I knew that this was going to happen all along. I hurried up to my room and

quickly changed into a good pair of jeans, a black tank top, with a black sweatshirt over it, with my running shoes, since I was probably going to do a lot of running within the next couple

hours. I was just about to climb out my window, when I heard a couple of the men from down stairs footsteps coming up to my room, with a few curses as they hit their head on the wood

above. Not having time to go through the window, since they were right outside my door, I snuffed all the candles, plunging me into unmovable darkness. And felt my way, quietly to the

bathroom, where I jammed myself into one of the lower cabinets, and people think it's a bad thing to be small. I heard them kick open the locked door and search around my room, now I

was certain they were looking for me. "This is her room," one of them growled. "But where is she." "Hey Claire," said the one with a slightly higher voice. "We don't want to hurt you, hon,

we just want to take you to someone who wants to talk to you, and if you don't put up a fight we won't have to hurt you." Yup, they work for the vampires because they said almost the

exact same thing that the vampires said to me and how well did that work out? I heard one of them open the door to the bathroom and I held my breath out of fear. "She has to be in

here" said the one with the lower voice. They opened the shower curtain and now I could see the light from their flashlight. I braced myself for them to find me because they would look in

the cabinets. When they opened the door to the cabinet my heart stopped, but when they opened my cabinet, I was ready. I saw a bearded face with a black head of hair looking at me,

he began to smile and reach for me, but he never finished that smile. I jammed my foot out at him, hitting him squarely in the face which made him retreat back. I quickly crawled out of

the cabinet and started running towards the bathroom door. I almost made it when one of them tackled me to the ground from behind and held me down. The guy who was on top of me

was only slightly bigger than me, so I struggled away from him harder and quickly threw him off. I launched myself on my bed and actually had my head out the window, when someone

grabbed my legs from behind, threw me onto the bed, where I went flying onto the floor, and hit my head, hard. I was just about to get up and fight again when I came up with the idea

that if I acted like I was unconscious, because I hit my head, they wouldn't tie me up and it would be easier to escape later. I let my body go limp and made my face go completely placid,

even though I was at an incredibly awkward position. I heard the loud footsteps come closer to me and I felt the boot touch my face and move my body so I was lying on my back. "Do

you think she's really out?" said the one with the higher voice, who I'm guessing is the shorter one. "I don't know it looked like the wretch it her head pretty hard. Dude, I think she broke

my nose," said the bigger one, whose voice now sounded like he had a bad cold. Suddenly a boot collided with my side, then my rib cage, once on my thigh, and another time on my face.

I forced my face to stay placid, and not to flinch or tense up my muscles and forced myself to just take it. It hurt so bad it took an effort not to start crying or to scream out in pain,

especially when he kicked me in the face, I could already feel a bruise forming. "Yeah, she's out," I wanted to smack him when I noticed the satisfaction in his voice. "Larry, pick her up."

Suddenly I was flying though the air and onto Larry's shoulder, who was obviously the bigger guy because it felt like I was pretty high of the ground, but not nearly as tall as Quil. As he

walked down the stairs to the kitchen, I noticed that Larry wasn't holding on to me very tight. Deciding I might not get another chance like this, I gently grabbed onto Larry's coat and

swiftly pried myself out his grasp landing in a heap on the ground and then sprinting up the stairs as fast as I could. They were so surprised that they didn't follow me and soon I was to

the tunnel in my room that led to the shed outside, the one that Emily showed me on the first day. I dove head first though the tunnel and army crawled though the tunnel as fast as I

could. Last time I did this all I could notice was the mud everywhere, but now I could care less if I got a little bit dirty. Based on how broad I knew Larry's shoulders were I knew we

couldn't fit through the tunnel, but the other guy certainly could. Nonetheless seconds later I heard the guy enter the tunnel, which only made me go faster. I could hear his loud breath

as he descended the tunnel after me, which made it seem like he was only inches from me, but I know that I was going faster than him and soon he was pretty far away from me and I

could just faintly hear his breathing in the background. I finally came out of the tunnel and took off at a sprint down the road my ,clothes stiff with dirt and mud, to Quil's house, trying to

stay towards the woods because Larry probably alerted the other three guys in the kitchen that I escaped. I ran as fast and hard as I could, faster that I had ever ran in my life. Soon I

heard the man's footsteps coming fast after me, but I was faster than him. I got to Quil's door and frantically tried to open the door, but it was locked, I ran quickly to the back door and

saw the man running down the road towards me, the moon making him look odd under the light, this situation vaguely reminded me of the old version of the movie 'Halloween.' The back

door was locked too, since when does Quil lock his house? I ran though the forest onto the trails in Quil's backyard, took the path that goes opposite to the tree house and dove into the

under growth. Just as I expected, since the guy couldn't see me very well he thought that I had kept going and ran right past me. I waited until his footsteps faded away and headed

back down the path, but this time turned onto the path that headed towards the tree house. I ran as fast as I could and I got there fairly quickly and started savagely climbing up the

rope. I was almost to the top when some unknown force, jumped on me from behind and pulled me to the ground. I fell onto my back with a cry, of pain and shock. I felt the creature land

solidly next to me on the ground. I could feel where my hands had rubbed against the rope were raw and most likely bleeding. The creature, faster than a bullet, pried me to my feet and

slammed me against a tree. I realized it was a woman and not a man this time because of her laugh.

"So I finally found the girl that he wants to play with? You don't look like much." She said as she stared into my eyes and I stared, petrified, into her red eyes. She was going to say

something else, but suddenly something white flew out of nowhere and knocked her to the ground at least fifteen feet away from me. I fell forward onto my face and quickly got to my

feet and noticed that the white thing fighting with her was Seth; someone else must be around here somewhere. I was going to go running out into the forest, since I couldn't go out to

the main road, but then Jake popped out of nowhere, used his mouth and nose to quickly push me quickly onto his back. We took off running, without giving me much time to hold on, so I

almost fell off, but just in time for me go grab onto his neck. He ran and ran and suddenly he stopped and I almost flew off his back, but he caught me with his mouth. "Thanks" I said

awkwardly as he lowered me to the ground. I looked around and saw that there were three other wolves around; there was Sam, Collin, and Quil. Quil immediately came over to me and

licked my face a couple times and that's how I knew he could see the bruise that was already forming there. "I'm fine Quil, I promise." I said, but we both knew I was lying. I knew that if

he was human he would have fussed over me, but that was gratefully not possible as a wolf, but he just does that because he cares. Quil sat down behind me so I was leaning slightly

on him, and suddenly I noticed how cold I was before. I could tell that Sam was giving them orders, but then out of know where all four of them looked towards the forest to the right.

They all moved in front of me and Quil used his nose so that I was directly behind him. I waited for a couple seconds and then suddenly they all jumped into action at the barely visible

vampires. I huddled myself against the tree and I could tell that I was about to go into shock. I watched them fight for awhile and I knew that I should run or do something, but I couldn't

do anything, but watch in horror. Suddenly, a hand came out and grabbed me and pulled me around and I was face to face with Larry, "This is for my nose" he said and slapped me in the

face and I felt my mouth start bleeding. Momentarily dazed, the four guys haled me up and carried me a couple feet, and then I started screaming bloody murder for Quil. I realized that if

I didn't get out of this I might not ever see Quil again, which only made me scream louder and struggle harder. I saw Quil look up and start running towards me, but another mob of

vampires attacked him and he couldn't get to me. He got through them and came after me again, but was once again tackled by another vampire. All four of the men were carrying me

now, and soon I saw the road ahead of us, with a white van waiting with the doors open and the guy who chased me down the road had already started the car. I looked back frantically

at Quil and screamed his name again and started sobbing for him hysterically. I was thrown onto the floor of the van and the door was quickly shut. They quickly and skillfully tied me up

and put some gag over my mouth, that smelled like chemicals, as I screamed and struggled for Quil. Before I passed out, because of the chemical, the last thing I remember seeing is

Quil's eyes looking frantically at me and running after the van. Right then, I knew that Quil would find me and would look for me until he died or the world ended.

**Hey, guys sorry this is a little later than I said it would be. Anyway, I hoped you liked it. See I told you we were about to get to the good part. Anyway, I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to update for about two weeks, which is why I wanted to get this chapter up before I leave. So, please, please, please, please, review with carmel, and chocolate and sprinkles on top. Thanks guys and thanks for reading.**

**-Sky and Stars**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or Halloween.**


	21. Chapter 21

Burning Chapter 21

Claire's Point of View

The world is dark and silent and for once when I sleep there are no dreams; there is nothing, but silence. Once in awhile I glimpse colors; pinks, oranges, and reds shine into my eyes, like

a sunrise. I occasionally hear muted voices that come from nothing, but they're just mummers in the background of my sleep and seemingly too far away to understand. It's like I'm flying,

but falling at the same time; this place is painful and also peaceful. Peaceful because there is nothing to worry about, because there is nothing here, painful because from the corners of

my mind I know that I shouldn't be in this place and there's something I need to do, but I can't seem to remember what it is…..

I was thrown out of my safe world and back into the harsh reality that I have the unfortunate luck of living in, when something started slapping me on the face. I tried to open my eyes,

but they didn't seem capable of working. How long had I been out? Once I was finally able to pry my eyes open, my vision was blurry, made up of colors, and I wasn't able to make out

solid shapes, but I was still aware of a face looking down at me. I blinked a couple more times and my vision reluctantly came back because Larry, broken nose and all, was staring down

at me, and slapping me in the face. At first, I could see his lips moving, but no sound was coming out. Just because my eyes were open he assumed that I was awake enough to be

moved. So he pulled me up from wherever I was lying, by my shirt, and set me on my feet. I didn't get a chance to look around because I felt myself falling and found myself face first on

the dirt covered ground. For once, they just let me be and suddenly all the things that had happened in the forest came back to me. I quickly pushed them aside and decided that right

now was not the time to deal with it, but I still couldn't get the look of his eyes as he ran after me out of my head. Because my eyes were closed, and I wasn't thinking about getting up

anytime soon,(also because I was tied up) I had no idea where we were, but because I could feel the heat boring into me and could see the sun even when my eyes are closed, I knew

that I wasn't in La Plush anymore. Someone prodded me onto my back with their boot, so I was then looking up at the cloudless blue sky, which slightly dazzled me for a moment, since I

haven't seen a blue sky in God knows how long. Larry bent down and untied me and I could feel that the ropes have given me bruises to be added to my list of injuries I had gained in the

forest. How long ago was that? I took my time getting up and as I did I could see all five men huddled together, obviously in deep discussion. It was obvious that we weren't just

stopping to stretch our legs, for one thing they wouldn't have gotten me up if that was true, we we're probably waiting for someone. As I got up I could sense Larry looking at me with a

smug look on his face, so as hard as I could, I tried not to grimace and once I finally got up, Larry wasn't laughing anymore. I looked around and we _really_ weren't in La Plush anymore.

There was brown and dry looking rolling hills' going off into the distance as far as I could see in every direction, not a tree or soul in sight. The white van was pulled up along the edges of

a dirt road that went in two directions as far as I could see; I could even see heat rising from the road in the distance. No one tried to stop me as I got up, but let's face it, all of us know

it. Even if I could escape right now, there would be no where for me to go or even to hide, so really what's the point in fighting or trying to escape? That's right there is none. A couple

seconds later I could distantly see a car, coughing up clouds of dust behind it, barreling down the road, obviously going way over the speed limit. As it got closer I could see that it was

some kind of fancy sports car that could go eighty miles an hour in a blink of an eye. If Jake were here he would go into a detailed description that he could only understand about how

the car worked, what kind it was, and whatever else there is to talk about in a car. Thinking about Jake made my heart twinge to think of everything and everyone that I left behind at

home. But that was the past and this is the present and I know I'll be back in the near future, hopefully before school starts. He and they tried to protect me the best they could,

somehow it hurt to picture his face or to even think about him and losing him, I thought as a feeling loneliness and fear washed through me. He would know what to do and now it's my

job to get myself back to La Plush, for him. I put everyone at home through a terrible time for the last couple weeks and now I can't count on them to get me out of this situation since

there's no possible way for them to track me all the way out here. Now it's my responsibility to get out of here and I know I can do it, the bubble of self-pity, and fear that had been in my

heart for the last month or so finally burst and was filled with determination, strength and anger. The car came and stopped in front of us and I automatically stepped back a couple feet

and through the corner of my eye I could see the men eyeing me wearily. Even though there is now point in putting up a fight, it's not like I'm going to let them kidnap me- again. As the

car stopped I could see that it was painted black with white stripes down the middle and the windows were so dark that I couldn't see the person or vampire driving the car. The back

door of the car opened, so I wasn't able to see inside the car. All the men looked at me, so I assumed I was supposed to get in, but like I said, it's not like I'm going to make this easy for

them. So I just crossed my arms and stared back at them and let a hint of amusement enter my expression. We stood looking at each other for awhile; until they finally got the message

that I'm not going anywhere out of free will. The smaller guy from my room (who is obviously the leader) ordered me into the car and I just stood there looking at him, which really seemed

to tick him off. He came striding up to me, grabbed onto my sweatshirt, pulled me into him and started yelling in my face, managing to spit all over me, to get into the car. When he didn't

get a reaction, he started harshly shaking me so that my neck snapped back and forth, until he got so fed up he threw me onto the ground. My first reaction was to fight back, but then I

realized that doing that wouldn't get me any closer to escaping because it would just get me more hurt and more tired when I was ready to escape, so all I can do right now is to just

take it. I just stayed lying on the ground, my head and neck feeling like I have whiplash and painfully sat up again, as I tried to massage my neck. I looked at the guy and I think that he

thought I was going to get up and get into the car, but once it became obvious that I wasn't going to do that he stalked off, with a vain throbbing in his forehead. Larry tried next and had

a better idea. He flopped my onto his shoulder, so that I momentarily couldn't breathe and flipped me so I fell, not gently, onto the floor of the car, feet first. Seconds later I heard the

door slam above my head. The car sped away so fast I rolled over onto my face and then I painfully moved myself into a sitting position so I was leaning against the door. At first I

couldn't see anything because the extreme darkness in the car contrasted so much with the extreme brightness I had just been in. As my eyes adjusted I became aware that the car was

seated like a limo. There were two benches of seats facing the middle and there was a dark window so I couldn't see the driver. I soon became aware of two men sitting next to each

other on the seats to my right. They just sat there looking at me curiously, but it was obvious that they weren't going to knock me out or something, so I went and sat on the seat across

from them. I looked at them for awhile and it became very clear that these two men were not human, they were vampires. They both had deep red eyes and incredibly pale skin and

seemed to almost glow in the dark. They were also identical twins to the way that their deep brown hair curled to the way that they sat slouched in their seats. We looked at each other

for a long time until one of them said "so you're Claire." Unable to say anything, I just nodded. They both turned to each other and started talking to each other so fast that I couldn't

even tell who was talking at times. When they were done they both looked back at me with the same mischievous smile. They both came and sat down next to me and one of them put

an arm, that wasn't very comforting, around my shoulder. "He's been looking for you for a long time." "Really" I said trying to sound confident, but I could feel my heart beating in my

finger tips and my hands were sweating. "Who's 'he'?" I asked, starting to feel like I was going to throw up. "You'll find out soon enough" said the one on my right, while the one on the

left tightened his arm around me so I was almost sitting on him. To my extreme horror, the one on my left actually pulled me onto him and used his arms to hold me down and clamped a

hand over my mouth, while I struggled as hard as I could, but I have no strength what so ever against vampires. While I was struggling, the other one put his hands on the side of my

neck and began to gently feel around, which made me freak out even more and struggle harder. A couple seconds later he apparently found the spot he was looking for and pressed

down on the same point on both sides of my neck. The last thing I heard was the two of them laughing in the distance.

Why does this always happen to me? I wondered to myself as I woke up lying, in the pitch dark, on my back on the floor of the car. I raised my head up and immediately felt my head spin

and felt incredibly nauseated, I could feel the bruises where that guy had pressed on my neck, most likely a pressure point. With nothing else to do, I fell into a fitful sleep, trying to sooth

the pounding headache that would not crease. It felt like we drove for hours and hours, but I couldn't be certain, we could have been driving for twenty minutes or twenty hours.

Eventually, I felt the car slow and then stop and I nearly threw up with the thought of even being moved anywhere. Seconds after we stopped, hands gripped me again and carried me

into the cool morning air, though that didn't help me from throwing up. The second I was out of the car, I threw up all over the place and was immediately dropped from the hands that

we're carrying me, so I was throwing up on my hands and knees. Once I was done, I laid down gently on the sparsely grass covered ground and tried to relax, though after that I didn't

feel nauseated anymore, but I still had a killer headache. I felt my head being lifted onto someone's lap and felt warm hands pry my mouth open, put something small inside my mouth,

and then filled it with water, so I was forced to swallow whatever it is they put into my mouth. Then they started whipping my face off and pushing my hair, that was stuck to my face and

neck because of how much I was sweating, away from me and put it back into a ponytail. I don't know how long we stayed like that, with this person gently stroking my hair. Once I could

open my eyes and my headache was almost gone, I was almost expecting Quil to be the face looking down at me, but it was a human man's. He pushed me, so I was sitting up and

helped me up to my feet. He also started talking to me in some language that I didn't sound like anything that I had ever heard before. When I didn't answer him and just stared at him

blankly I think he got it that I had no idea what I was saying and started talking to the twin vampires that we're behind me. With a small smile he left me alone with the irritated looking

twins, hopped into the driver's seat and raced down the road, never to be seen again. While he was doing this I looked around and saw that the sun was just coming up; we had driven

all night. The most irritated twin grabbed my arm and started dragging me into the forest, so quickly that I was tripping after him, while the other twin followed behind us, every once in

awhile catching me so I wouldn't completely wipe out. As we went deeper and deeper into the forest all the trees and flowers that littered the ground felt older and more ancient. None of

the trees were very tall, but they all had twisted and kinked branches that flowed awkwardly and beautifully over the narrow path we were walking. It was obvious that it hadn't rained

here in awhile, but everything still looked like it just rained. The tree's we're sparse and far apart, nothing like the forest at home, but equally as beautiful. Soon the vampires got so fed

up with me that the one in front flipped me onto his shoulder and then we were running and there was no more sightseeing. We probably ran for about fifteen or twenty minutes meaning

that we probably covered countless miles. The vampire that was holding me stopped so suddenly that I almost went flying off, but he caught me and quickly set me on my feet, where I

almost fell over, but the other one was already pushing me forward. We walked through the forest more and then it came into view. There was an insanely gigantic mansion in the middle

of nowhere; I'm not kidding. This place is humongous; it looked like some fancy building from England or something where some princess lives, though I knew I was going to probably be

the prisoner in the dungeon. There were probably five floors and there were at least ten windows each floor, reminding me a lot of the White House, only bigger. We went through the

gate into the property and I heard it lock as they shut it and I almost made a run for it, but since they are vampires I have a feeling I wouldn't get too far. They towed me up the gigantic

steps going to the porch and was surprised when I saw that there was a diamond chandelier _outside_ the house hanging from the porch. Even before they knocked or even before we got

up to the door it was opened by a female vampire and I nearly threw up. They pushed me inside and I was shocked by how warm it was, which didn't make since to me because vampires

don't really need the heat, the next thing I noticed was the huge chandelier that was hanging in the room and how fancy it was. The ceilings were carved into figures and there were very

fancy paintings and statures lining the hall and like every fancy house there was no color, everything was earth toned, with tons of fancy carpets and tiled floors. The women took the

twins coats and pointedly ignored me. The room was a circle, with several doors scattered around the room and I knew that I would get lost in a heartbeat. Each twin gripped my arm as

we followed the lady though a door to the left. We were taken down a hall with still no doors lining it until we got farther and ran into another circle thing with doors and she took us

through a door on the right this time. We kept going and eventually there started to be doors lining the hallways and the doors that we're on the circle lessened until finally there was

only one door left. We took it and I found myself in front of a marble staircase that sweeped from two directions and into the foyer. They pushed me up the right staircase and as I looked

straight up I could see a series of even more twisted staircases leading to who knows where. The lady pushed up two big wooden doors and I found myself in a throne like room. The

whole room was bare except for a throne on a platform and a crooked wooden chair with a high back that was facing it. The lady hung back and the twins walked me forward towards the

chair where they whipped rope out of their pockets and tied my legs to the chair, then wrapped my arms around the back of the chair and tied my wrists together and then wrapped a

length of rope around my neck and then around the chair so I was forced to stare up at the throne and to sit up straight because if I didn't I would be chocked. Without a word, the twins

left and I heard the wooden doors bang shut behind them. I waited there a couple minutes, until my shoulders started burning and then someone came in. I couldn't get a good view on

him yet. He walked into the light and I could see he had shaggy blonde hair, was fairly tall, and incredibly skinny. So skinny that he looked like skin and bones and his face looked gaunt,

heck his whole body looked gaunt, and his deep blue eyes that looked like something I've seen before had a crazy and reckless look in them. The thing that surprised me the most that

even though he was incredibly pale, almost translucent, he wasn't a vampire. We stared at each other for a second until finally he said "hello Claire." My pulse spiked because it was the

voice from the phone. My breathing got quicker and I could see my chest and stomach going wildly up and down because suddenly there wasn't enough air. He started walking lazily

towards me, with crazy triumphant in his eyes. "There's no reason to be so scared Claire, no one will hurt you, as long as you do what I say." If that was supposed to comfort me, it didn't

work, and now I could feel beads of sweat falling down my back. He kept walking towards me and soon he was looking down at me and I was unable to look away from him because of

the stupid rope. "Though, I can see that you've already been hurt." He looked up and down my body and I could tell that he wasn't just looking for injuries; he was looking at me like he

was the predator and I was the prey. He reached out towards my face and touched my bruise on my face where Larry had kicked me and I instinctively shut my eyes and flinched away.

He stroked my face and neck with his hand, going from my shoulder, up my chin and would follow my hair line and then go back down again. "I've wanted you since you were three, the

second that the war ended. You see the only reason I want you is because of Quil and to hurt him. See 12 years ago there was a war for this girl Bella, who was human at the time,

against the Cullen's and this chick Victoria who wanted to kill her because Edward killed her mate and the wolves from La Plush helped the Cullen's out. If the wolves hadn't helped the

Cullen's they would all be dead right now and now there's still a truce between the two of them. During this war Quil killed my parents, who were just newborn vampires. We used to live

in Texas; right on the border of Mexico, and one night Victoria and her henchmen came into our house and my parents and turned my brother, but for some reason they didn't bite me. I

didn't figure it out until later that even without being a vampire I could control only vampires, by persuasion and mind control and they didn't change me because I would be too powerful.

My brother has the power to shape shift within himself, He can make himself look like any age of himself and he can also switch between being a vampire and a human. So now because

he killed my parents and hurt me, I took you to hurt Quil. And do you know what I'm going to do now?" As he said this, through my closed eyes, I felt him move closer to me, and he

started the same trail that he did with his hand with his lips. My eyes shot open and all I could see was blonde hair, my body tensed and I struggled away as hard as I could, but the

ropes we're too tight and I kept getting choked by the rope around my neck and he just ignored my reaction and kept going. "I'm going to marry you Claire, then I'm going to make sure

you have as many kids as you can and give them all up for adoption, and later when you just about to die, I'm going to have someone turn you into a vampire and you're going to be in

this house for the rest of eternity. So we can make this easy or hard for you for the rest of your life right now. If you say yes to my question then I make sure you live the rest of your life

comfortably, but you can't ever put up fight to what I do with you, and if you do I can make your life very unpleasant from that point on. If you say no, I will still force you to do the stuff I

want to do with you, but you can put up a fight and I will try my hardest to make the rest of your life as unpleasant as possible. So Claire will you marry me, or I should say will you

willingly marry me?" Then he let out a crazy sounding fit of laughter, like my unhappiness was the funniest thing in the world, and that sent chills up my spine. This guy is insane, I thought

as tears fell from my eyes, what should I do? I'll be forced to marry him even if I say no, but I'll try my hardest to escape, right? Maybe I should just say yes. But even as my head said

yes, my body said no and I violently shook my head. He pulled away from me and looked me in the eye and a evil smile cracked onto his face "Well, Claire you just made the wrong

decision." He was going to say something else, but one of the doors in the front opened and a figure came onto the throne platform and I nearly fainted when I saw the person who had

just walked through the door. The second he saw me he stopped and stared at me. It was Sean.

**Hey guys, Sooooo sorry it took so long. I had a serious case of writers block (so suggestions of what you want to happen would be incredibly wonderful because I'm still running out of ideas of what should happen to Claire and I love having your input) and I wanted to get this chapter write. If you don't remember who Sean is read chapter three, or review and I'll reply and tell you who he is. Thanks so much guys, please, please, please, review. Thanks**

**-Sky and Stars **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight**


	22. Chapter 22

Burning Chapter 22

Claire's Point of View

Through my blurry, tear filled eyes, I saw Sean glance intensely between my insane soon-to-be husband and me and saw him mentally put the pieces together, but what is he doing here? Did he have a part in killing my family? The thought of his betral brought tears to my eyes, which spilled over and streamed down my face. I had trusted him, I had even considered going out with him.

"Hello brother," calmly remarked the insane guy, "I'm glad you could stop by our little…meeting."

"Jesse" mumbled Sean, just loud enough so I could hear him "I thought you had let it go all those years ago." He looked me in the eyes and I could see how much he cared about me and it took me by surprise.

Jesse let out a crazy laugh and said "oh you thought that I gave up just because you fell in love with her, when she was only seven. Well I have news for you I will never forgive Quil for what he has done to this family, to me! And this is the only way to make him pay, by hurting her. At first I was worried that you fell in love with her, but it only made it that much easier to do all of this, right under your nose."

"But she has nothing to do with this, and it happened 12 years ago, it's time to get over it and let her go" Sean exclaimed motioning wildly towards me. It was obvious that he had no idea this was happening and it was slightly comforting to know that he had no part in kidnapping me or killing my family.

"Oh, but I have so many plans for her that it would be a shame for all that planning to go to waste, and she has everything to do with this" Jesse said putting on a sarcastic smile and looked down at me, meeting my confused gaze. Why would hurting me hurt Quil as much as he says it will? I mean we are best friends, but it's not like we're Sam and Emily when Sam freaks out because Emily has a bloody nose and vice versa. He let out a gasp and seemingly reading my mind said, "but you don't know do you?" From the corner of my eyes I saw Sean start pacing back and forth with his hands knotted in his hair and I braced myself for the worst. "Well, Claire" he whispered, squatting next to me and whispering into my ear, "Has Quil told you about imprinting?" He waited a moment for a response, but didn't get one. "Well, I'll take that as a no. Imprinting is when a wolf finds their other half or soul mate. These two people are so much in love that they almost seem to revolve around each other and have to be with each other, it's their destiny. And your Quil's imprint, your destined to be with him, forever. But now that you're marring me, that's' never going to happen, in fact you're never going to see him again. So I hope you made the most of your time with him. Anyway……" Jesse continued to rattle on, but I couldn't get past it. Quil and I are soul mates? He and I we're supposed to be in love get married and be with each other forever just like Sam and Emily. I pictured my life with Quil; watching millions of movies together, becoming closer and closer friends, our first kiss, finishing each others' sentences, his arms wrapped around me, having fun, laughter, happiness, our wedding day, and us being old together, sitting on the porch of Quil's house in La Plush and I wanted it more than I have ever wanted anything before. So that's why he always looks at me like I'm the most fragile thing in the world, and always takes care of me, he loves me. And I love him too. As the words came to my head, I was suddenly struck by how true they were. I was so caught up in my fantasies that it took me a couple of minutes to realize that a screaming match was going on in front of my eyes. Sean was screaming about how he should let me go, ect. And Jesse was screaming back about how he had to avenge their family and how he would never give up. Sean raised his eyes up to the sky and wildly shook his head. Without a moment of hesitation he came over to me and started untying all the ropes, while Jesse just looked on with amusement.

"Do you honestly think you'll even get out the front doors with her when you're a human and if you turn into a vampire I can influence you all I like," Jesse said with a smug smile as I climbed to my feet, having difficulty because I was trembling so much. In response to my shaking, Sean swiftly wrapped an arm around my waist and swept me into his arms, walking swiftly out the door, ignoring the screams of protest by his brother.

We swept open the huge wood doors and I was surprised when there was no resistance. Without hesitating he plunged us into the maze of doorways and circled rooms.

"You can put me down if you want," I whispered into his ear, thinking that I was pretty heavy for a human.

He sighed, reminding me a lot of Quil, which sent butterflies into my stomach. "I got ya Claire, let's just get you home," he whispered back. He kept walking on, seeming never to tire, even though he was cradling me. We went deeper into the maze and finally when it seemed hopeless there was only one door left. He took it and we we're mercifully greeted by cool mid morning air and I realized we we're at the back of the house. The backyard was amazing. It had a swimming pool, a tennis court and even a golf course. He set me onto my feet wordlessly and hesitantly let go of me to make sure I wouldn't fall over. Once he was sure I was as close to fine as I could get, he grabbed onto my hand and we started a jog to the forest, which started all the way across the backyard, probably a mile if we made a straight shot for it. The problem was that the golf course was quite hilly and it took a lot of extra effort just to get up the hills. We we're probably even less than a quarter mile away from the forest when a vampire suddenly popped up in front of us and without meaning to I let out a strangled cry. Sean swiftly pulled me behind him. Instead of seeing Sean change into a vampire I felt it, his warm hand that was still holding onto mine turned ice cold, his skin visibly paled a couple shades, his face no longer had the redness from running and he was no longer breathing, and his intense blue eyes turned a pale red. Suddenly, they pounced on each other and not quite knowing what to do, turned around and saw three human men coming at me, fast. Though they we're still a good 200 meters away, I took off sprinting towards the forest. I was steps away from reaching it when a strong, cold arm gripped me around the stomach and tackled me to the ground, right into a mud puddle. He turned me around so I was lying on my back and there was so much mud that it covered me the top half of me into the mud and it was going into my mouth. It didn't help that the vampire was sitting on my stomach, his hands around my wrists, pinning me down and every time I would struggle, he pushed me down deeper into the mud until finally I was almost completely submerged except for my eyes, nose, and mouth. Finally the three human men that I had seen running towards me got there and the vampire mercifully got off of me and pulled me to my feet, where I was pushed into the three men. While the vampire left to go help the vampire that was attacking Sean and losing hopelessly, the man that I was thrown into, put his arms under my armpits, one hand covering my mouth and lifted me up. The other one carried the middle part of me with one hand around my thighs and the other around my back, while the third held onto my feet, the whole time I struggled, refusing to give defeat. I kicked the guy who was holding my feet in the face a couple times and was now bleeding, and I kept hitting the guy that was closest to my hands as hard as I could, until the guy holding onto the top of me got wise and contained my arms. Within 15 long minutes, they finally got to the door where we got out, which was now guarded by vampires. The three men gave me to two more vampires, who held me so tightly and efficiently that it was impossible for me to even move. Impatient, they ran through the hallways and I once again found myself in the throne room, but this time the room was lined with maybe 50 or 60 vampires. They set me onto my feet and swiftly walked away, taking their posts at the door. Seconds later, the two vampires who attacked us came back into the throne room, dragging a now human Sean between them. Jesse got up started clapping, in a slow rhythmic pattern.

"Bravo, bravo, you guys got much further than I thought I thought you would, even with the five minute head start I gave you," he chided, walking forward. He turned to the two vampires holding onto Sean and said, "Take him to his room. Lock the door and don't let him come out for anything, unless I say so and make sure to guard the doors." The vampires nodded and started dragging him out of the room. I tried to shoot him a reassuring glace, but he was giving his brother such a death stare that I wasn't sure if he saw it or not. "Well, Claire now that you've had this…experience. Maybe you'll reconsider my offer." Now that I knew Quil imprinted on me there was no way I would ever even consider marrying him. I quickly shook my head, because I didn't trust my voice. He stepped closer to me and in a couple steps he embraced me in his arms. I tried to shrink away from him, but he put one hand firmly on my lower back and the other in a vise like grip around the back of my neck. "Maybe this will make you reconsider," he murmured. He tilted my head up, so I was looking at the ceiling and started kissing my neck in a rhythmic pattern, moving my sweatshirt aside to get to my collar bone and shoulder. He then started moving his lips across my neck and over my jaw bone and up my hairline. The whole time I was struggling against him, but every time I tried to get away from him, he just held me tighter to him. I knew he was trying to get a response out of me, but he was never going to get one. I could feel him getting agitated and frustrated with me, but I didn't care and soon his hard lips we're pressed to mine and I struggled even harder against him and kept my lips stubbornly pressed together and unmoving. "You can do better than this Claire, we'll just have to do some practicing," he said, laughing, and taking a half step backwards. I took my chance and in a sudden jolt pulled myself away from him, drew my fist back, and let it fling forward, punching him squarely in the nose. Unfortunately, it wasn't hard enough to break anything, but hey it was worth a shot. He let out a scream of shock and let go of me completely and covered his nose with his hand, blood dripping down the side of his face. Realizing what he was doing, he strutted towards me, bringing his hand back, and shot it across my face. I felt his fingernails dig into the soft flesh in my cheek and felt the harsh sting of pain as blood dripped down my face. He hit me so hard that I found myself lying shocked on the ground, staring at the beautifully carved ceiling. Distantly, I heard Jesse yell, "GET HER OUT OF HERE. LOCK HER IN THE CELLER. DON'T LET HER OUT UNTIL I SAY SO FOR ANYTHING. DON'T GIVE HER ANY FOOD OR WATER AND DON'T GIVE HER MEDICAL ATTENTION AND MAKE SURE TO TIE HER UP TIGHTLY. WHAT ARE YOU STANDING AROUND FOR? GO!"

Seconds later I felt someone throw me over their shoulder and walk silently down hallways. By looking at the floors I knew we we're getting into the older part of the building because the floors we're no longer nicely tiled, but we're warn with years. Soon we we're going down flight's and flights of stone steps. I felt the temperature drop dramatically the farther we went down and I realized that we we're underground. We then got to the very bottom of the building and I was taken down a dimly lit hallway where wine lined the walls. At the very end of the hallway there was one enclosed room that was actually pretty big for a cellar. He opened the door and I saw shackles line the walls. He set me down on my back in the middle of the floor and thankfully didn't see a need in putting me in shackles. Instead he took out rope from his jacket, tied my legs and wrists tightly together, and pulled out a gag. Before he could stuff it into my mouth I whispered,

"Please…help me." At first I thought that he just ignored my plea like most would do because he just went on with his job and made me open my mouth and stuffed the material in, but before he got up he whispered,

"I'm sorry." He then gently bent down to me and tenderly kissed my forehead, then got up to leave and bolted the door, leaving me in my eternal darkness.

**Hey guys sorry it's been so long. School's insane and the only reason I'm able to update is because I'm on break right now. Well, I'll try to update when I can again, but I can't promise anything. Please, please review it really makes me want to update. Thank you soooooooooooo much for reading, thanks guys. **

**Sky and Stars **


	23. Chapter 23

Burning Chapter 23

Claire's Point of View

As I laid in the dark, unlike being knocked out and having no concept of time, every second seemed agonizingly long and painful, though I didn't know how much time had gone by, it could have been minutes or hours, of just staring up at the ceiling. I started finding shapes from the cracks on the wall and then shuddered while wondering how many other people had done exactly the same thing, finding exactly the same shapes. The silence was never ending and as time went by it seemed to deepen and wouldn't let up. One of the reasons I actually knew time was going by was because my wrists and ankles we're becoming rawer and rawer by the second and I was fairly certain they started bleeding because I could feel some kind of liquid dripping down my wrist. Luckily, I hadn't drank anything in probably a couple days, so I never had to go to the bathroom and I never ate anything, so there was nothing to throw up. The only problem with that is I started seeing black dots in front of my eyes, and everything started feeling unreal, probably from exhaustion and dehydration, like maybe it wasn't really happening. With nothing else to do, I finally was dazed enough and fell asleep.

* * *

The silence was cut, and I was awoken as the door creaked open, then something cold and wet hit me in the face and my eyes slowly opened, too exhausted to even move. From my blurry eye sight, I saw two vampires staring down at me. Suddenly I was lifted up into someone's arms, but I no longer cared what they did with me, the only thing I wanted was Quil. I could get through anything, if it was for Quil. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the vampire's chest and stared blankly up at the ceiling.

Soon we got to the throne room and I was once again seated in the wooden chair and I was surprised to see that Sean was tied to a similar chair, seated across from me. The vampire's pulled the gag out of my mouth and mercifully untied me. When the ropes came off they we're soaked with my blood, but I no longer cared, the only thing on my mind was how to get out of here. The vampires left, leaving me alone with Sean. "Claire…sweetie," said Sean, so I lazily looked up at him right in his blue eyes, barely able to keep my head up. "I am so sorry" he continued, his voice thick with emotion, "I didn't know and I would have done everything in my power to stop it if I knew. I promise you, I'm going to get you out of here, and everything is going to be all right. "

By this time tears we're rolling down my face, and sobs we're escaping from my mouth and I was trembling so hard it almost hurt and I realized why they didn't tie me up, there was no point, I couldn't go anywhere, without hurting myself because I was so tired. Sean was about to say something else, but then Jesse came in and said with an evil sneer "Hello Claire, oh my, it looks like you've had quite a time of it and hello Sean, you look like you're in good health." Then I noticed that Sean had deep cuts and bruises on his face and on his arms, what happened to him?

Jesse kneeled in front of me and looked me in the eye and took my hand in his "I really don't want to have to do this to you; I know it's a little uncomfortable." And I heard a snort from Sean, but Jesse ignored it. "But if you would agree to marry me, you wouldn't have to go through this. What do you say, Claire, will you marry me?" If I was my old self and didn't know Quil, I would have told him yes, but now Quil's face was floating through my head, and even though I knew it was stupid, I spit at him in the face.

"You little wrench," he screamed in my face. Then he turned his face to his two vampires, "Make her life as unpleasant as possible, I don't care how you do it, be creative, take her away, and take him with you." He finished, gesturing towards Sean then stalking away angrily. The vampires rushed towards us, one going to Sean the other to me. They tied me back up, with the same cuts of rope, but this time they didn't gag me, which I took as a bad sign. One flipped me onto his shoulder and I saw Sean walking behind us, unbound and free. Was he just staying here because of me? They took me back down to the cellars, but this time took us to another cell. Though this cell was bigger, it smelled like mildew and earth and there we're chains that we're hanging from the walls. Oh, wonderful. I thought as my mind started to wake up from fear. They tied Sean up and gagged him and sat him in the corner as the other one untied me, as I stood in the middle of the room. Once one of them was done with Sean, he started fiddling with the chains. Once the vampire dealing with me was done untying me, he pushed me up against the wall with the chains, picked me up, latched chains around my ankles and wrists, and dropped me.

The pain was so excruciating, I almost fainted. My vision went blurry and I heard a shriek and suddenly realized it was mine. It felt like my arms we're being ripped from my shoulders and tears we're flowing, unstopping down my face. Then they left, leaving me in my pain.

After what seemed like forever and I was positive that my shoulder's we're dislocated, from hanging from my wrists when my arms we're twisted backwards, they came back. After whacking me around a little bit, and giving me a couple more bruises, they mercifully pulled me down and dropped me to the ground, face first in the mud, but anything was better than that. I stayed still as they tied my arms around my back as my shoulder's screamed in protest and wrapped some more rope around my feet and forced a gag into my mouth. As their finale, one of them picked me up and threw me into a puddle of what I hoped to be water, and left leaving me bleeding, broken, and wet, and muddy.

Once the pain had mostly died away, probably from shock, something touched me and thinking it was a vampire I jumped, but when I looked up Sean was looking down at me with his piercing blue eyes. Seeing that he had my attention, he motioned me to follow him to a somewhat dry corner. I weakly followed him, both of us doing a type of army crawl; the only difference is that he managed to be graceful because his arms we're tied in front of him. He got there before me and sat waiting for me, once I got there, since his arms we're tied in front of him, he managed to pull me onto his lap and wrapped is bound arms around me, where I leaned heavily against him, wishing it was Quil. After a moment of sitting there, he unwrapped his arms from around me and used his hands to lift my face up. Suddenly, he plunged his fingers into my mouth and my first reaction was to move away and then I realized that he was just trying to get the gag out of my mouth. He succeeded and pulled it out accompanied with a hacking cough. He immediately started prying his own out of his mouth and eventually spit it out.

"Hold on I'll untie my hands, and then I'll until you." I waited while he untied himself with his teeth and once he was done, he picked me off of him and set me in a sitting position and gently started untying my sore arms. Once he was done, I immediately tried to move my arms, but when I tried, they hurt so bad I whimpered and tears started falling from my eyes once again. "Shhh…honey don't move your arms, you're right shoulder is dislocated, you're lucky both of them aren't dislocated. He untied his legs, then mine, and once we we're free he picked me up and sat me on his lap and I leaned my head against his chest as he hugged me as I once again fell asleep.

* * *

I was awoken by an intense pain in my shoulder that made my eyes water as I opened them. I saw topaz eyes looking down at me, but this man was obviously a vampire, but he didn't have red eyes. Didn't Quil say something about if a vampire had topaz eyes; they ate animals and not people? Though that fact was comforting, I still retreated into Sean's arms and buried my head into his chest. "Claire, I want you to meet someone. This is Anthony; he's going to help you get out of here." I turned my head back to Anthony, he gently brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it gently and I remembered it was the same guy who had kissed my head.

"Delighted" he said as he smiled down at me as I tried up come with a somewhat real looking smile and managed a kind of shaky half smile. " Your shoulder's will be fine, the right one is no longer dislocated, I fixed it, but they are going to hurt for awhile longer because of the bruising, just try not to move them as much as possible. "

"He's a doctor," murmured Sean, tickling my ear. "Here drink this" he said as Anthony brought a cup of water to my lips. As a drank and I savored the feeling of water trickling down my throat Sean continued, " we would have already made a run for it, but you're in such bad shape that you wouldn't make it, which is why, in order to get out of here, we need you to accept his offer to marry him."

The water that I was drinking suddenly went down the wrong way and I started choking and once I was okay I said, my voice finally restored, "What?"

"Think about it Claire, you need to be physically able to get away, and right now you're not. The only way you'll be okay enough to get out is to accept his offer, because he'll most likely stop doing this to you. And don't worry we'll get you out of here before he actually marries you. No doubt that he'll want it big and extravagant, so it won't be for a couple weeks.

"Promise?" I whispered as I looked up at both their faces.

"Promise, but you just have to make it convincing, but not too convincing." Said Anthony and once I shot him a confused look, he rephrased and said, "from the way you're acting, he knows you don't want to marry him no matter what you say, so just act like you're just doing it because you have to, not because you want to."  
"That's easy enough." I muttered, more to myself than anyone else.

"All right, well I have to go, so I'll tie you guys back up. "

Anthony tied Sean up first and then brought me back to the place where I fell and tied me back up, all the while telling me how sorry he was. The second he left, I fell back asleep.

* * *

I was once again woken up by vampires, but this time I was actually somewhat awake, being able to rest. I was once again brought down the now familiar hallway to the throne room, with Sean behind me. The only difference than the last couple times, was that I had completely different intentions. I was put in the same chair and I was happy I was at least able to keep my head up. As before Jesse came in, but instead of kneeling or coming close to me or even saying anything. He just stood in front of me, with his arms crossed, and by raising one eyebrow asked the question silently.

"Yes, I'll marry you." I whispered, feeling guilty for saying those four words. He gave a triumphant smile and immediately came over to me and forced his lips onto mine. And instead of punching him in the face like I really wanted to, I moved my lips hesitantly against his, not really knowing what to do, as one of his hands came to my face and the other went to my waist. We stayed like that for what seemed like forever and I longed for him to stop. Then to my horror, he slipped his hand under my shirt touching my bare side and not being able to take it, my face flamed even brighter than before and I flinched away from him.

"Well, we'll have to practice some more, but it was a good start and you made a good choice." He said with a laugh, as he whispered into my ear and kissed me on the jawbone and I forced myself not to flinch. "I'll see you soon," he said walking away, and then talking to a vampire, "show Miss Young to some nicer accommodations."He left and before I could even glance at Sean, the vampires brought me to my feet and led me somewhat gently down the hallway out of the throne room, while I prayed nothing even worse would happen from agreeing and hoping I wouldn't actually have to marry that idiot.

**Well I hope you guys like it and I need some ideas because now after writers this chapter I have some intense writers block. Please, please, please review, it will make me update faster. And finally a special thanks to Manda 2784 and for reviewing on the last chapter. Thanks for reading, **

**-Sky and Stars **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **


	24. Chapter 24

Burning Chapter 24

Hi guys, so I haven't updated in so long, but I am so lost on what should happen in the next chapter. I have a final outcome of the story; I'm just not quite sure how to get there. I have been thinking about it for a couple months and even tried writing some stuff out, but it just wasn't right. So now I'm coming to you guys. If you guys have suggestions about what should happen, please IM me or review or whatever and I will seriously consider using your idea and will of course give you credit. I mean it any idea under the sun, or whatever floats your boat because I'm asking for your opinion on what should happen next. So please, please, please, please, with ice cream, sprinkles, chocolate chips, hot fudge, strawberries or whatever kind of food like, review and give me suggestions or it's going to be even a longer while before I update. Once I get a couple suggestion, I promise emphasis on promise that I will update within the week.

Thanks for reading this and if you have made it this far Congrats.

-Sky and Stars

P.S- Thanks to KJW, A. Good , and Manda2784 for reviewing the last chapter.


	25. Chapter 25

Burning Chapter 25

Claire's Point of View

As the two vampires led me down the stairs and turned down a corridor, they had to almost hold me up because every centimeter of my body hurt, which was amplified by ten because my constant trembling from fear. Once they had helped me hobble down to the end of the corridor, they unlocked a thick wooden door and I was suddenly worried about what these 'nicer accommodations' would consist of. Without a word they pushed me into my new prison and slammed the door behind me with a heavy thud. Instead of the darkness of my other prisons, all that was in this prison was white. The walls were white, the floor was white, the ceiling was white, even the small mattress that was lying in the middle of the white floor was white. Without knowing what else to do I hobbled over the mattress and pushed into the corner and collapsed onto the mattress and wished that there was a blanket or even a pillow. By this point I was ready to burst into tears, but my tear ducts felt dried out, so I couldn't even cry. After a while of just staring up at the ceiling, I finally fell into a fitful sleep.

The next couple hours, days, weeks, or whatever they where, were better than the previous amount of time since I had been captured. Every once in a while someone would bring me water, with a piece of bread and they let me out to go to the bathroom every couple of hours or so. Also I wasn't tied up, which was good, but now I can see that my wrists and ankles are covered with dried blood and blisters. My face felt big and puffy from being kicked in the face, slapped and kissed. My shoulder's were still so soar that I could barely lift them without being in a lot of pain, and they we're both black and purple from bruising. My arms were scratched up to no end, with a big scrape from my elbow to my forearm. My legs were in pretty good shape though, except from a couple bruises, a bit of a swollen ankle and a scraped knee that was coated over with dried blood. My torso was okay too, except for some bruising and a little bit of bleeding from an unknown source. But the worst part was that I _felt_ disgusting, emotionally, physically, and mentally. There was mud and blood covering every inch of me and I had been wearing the same clothes for probably a week. All I could think about was when I was going to get out of there, _if_ I was going to get out of there and Quil. All I wanted was Quil to hold me and tell me everything was going to be all right, but I wasn't even sure if he could make that promise.

When I was caught up in my thoughts, I heard the door creak open and from the corner of my eye I saw Anthony come into the room, the second that he closed the door I popped up and asked hopefully as a rush of hope filled me "are we leaving?"

As I asked my question, his face fell and he looked anxious which made my hopefully feeling instantly turned to despair. "Sorry honey" he said, almost embarrassed "but he wants to see you and sent me to get you." He came forward, gently took my hand as I tried not to let him see my broken expression. "We'll get out of here soon" he said as he gently kissed my hand "just be patient. Don't worry I bet he just wants to talk to you. Come on." He finished wrapping an arm gently around my bruised shoulders. He led me gently out the door, helped me up a couple flights of stairs, and we were in front of the door I was apparently supposed to go into.

Anthony knocked and I heard Jesse's distinct voice say "Come in, Claire." Anthony gave me a reassuring squeeze, opened the door and gently prodded me in with a small smile and once I was inside the room, he closed the door behind me with a final bang. The room I was in was beautifully furnished with rich carpets that I seemed to sink into so deeply that I figured they were more comfortable than the mattress in my room. All the furniture was deep red color and was made out of beautiful red brown wood. To top it off there was a large crystal chandelier, gorgeous art work lined the walls and there was a large T.V screen setting on one side of the long room. "Hello Claire" said Jesse getting up from one of the comfortable chairs and came to greet me. With a smile he put his hands on my filthy neck but, didn't seem to care as he pressed his lips forcefully against mine, while I kept my lips firmly unmoving. He let out a slightly insane sounding laugh, pulled away and looked at me. "Come on Claire, I don't want to have to hurt you again" he said and for emphasis pushed me harshly against the door, so our bodies we're pressed together. But I was so much shorter than him that he had to wrap his long arms around my thighs and hips and lifted me up, so I had to sit on his hips and put my legs on either side of his body, and pressed me even more closely to the door than before. I was raised a half inch higher than him so he had to reach up a bit and kiss me, but that didn't stop him. He kissed me harshly and passionately, twisting my lips in painful patterns, while I showed just enough enthusiasm, and blushed lobster red, so he wouldn't get mad. After he was done he set me down on the ground and called to one of his servants and with one more kiss I was whisked away, back to my room.

This continued for awhile and always in the same way. Anthony would come and get me and Jesse would have a make out session with me, which continued to get more and more uncomfortable for me when he began to feel free to touch places other than my face, but luckily he never went under my clothes. Anthony had come and once again I was going up to Jesse's room, but once I stepped into Jesse's room I knew that this would be different because Sean was standing in the middle of the room with two vampires holding onto him and I instinctively backed up against the door. "Oh, come here Claire there's nothing to be afraid." Said Jesse in a coaxing tone, but my feet felt frozen to the ground. He waited a moment for me to move, but then with a role of his eyes and a snap, one of the vampires let go of Sean and dragged me across the room, sitting me in a chair where I faced Sean directly. His face probably looked like what mine looked like with a big puffy cheek and a bruised forehead, but even though he was probably in pain he gave me a small reassuring smile, which I shakily returned. When Jesse put his hands on my shoulders, I flinched while Sean gave him a 'don't touch her look'. Jesse bent down and whispered into my ear" Sean is here because I want him to change into a vampire so I can control him, but he's being a bit stubborn so I thought that you could be some help to me." As he said this, his hands gripped my shoulders tighter and tighter and I could tell he was getting excited. "The thing that he will hate the most is if I do anything to you, so sorry Claire I'm going to have to hurt you again. He'll be able to stand the pain I inflict on him, but he won't be able to take the pain I inflict on _you," _he said with a smile in his voice. With a snap the same vampire pulled me to my feet and brought me over to the couch and put his cold hands on my hips, making me unable to move. Jesse came over to me and started kissing me harshly, while I struggled against him. "Stop it Claire," he said calmly at first, but once I didn't stop he slapped me against the face and threw me against the ground. While I was momentarily shocked, the vampire picked me up and put me on the couch and before I could get up Sean was laying on top of me and started kissing me even harder than before.

Soon are legs we're intertwined and he had pulled my sweatshirt off of me, and tears were streaking down my face. His grasping hands were all over my body, and suddenly I heard a low growl from the corner "get the hell off of her or I swear to God I'll kill you."

With a smirk, he leaned off of me so he was sitting on my thighs while, I was too scared to move except to turn my head to look at Sean. He was being held back by both vampires, but was still giving Jesse such a death stare that I would have been scared if he was looking at me like that. "You know what to do to make it stop; all you have to do is shape shift." He waited a couple minutes, shrugged, and then came back onto me, kissing me even harder than before. Soon, he flung off my tank top, so he was touching my bare skin, which made me struggle away from him even harder.

After a couple more minutes of torture, with a frustrated growl he mercifully got off of me and flung me to the ground with surprising strength. Then he started kicking me everywhere that he could reach, while I refused to let him get the satisfaction of my pain and just laid there and took it. But the only problem with that strategy was that the less pain I showed, the more frustrated he got, which made him kick harder. When he still didn't get a reaction from me, he stopped, pulled me up from the ground harshly by my hair, to my feet. But even though tears we're rolling down my face I refused to scream. Still by my hair, he pulled me to the chair that was facing Sean, and I couldn't even bear to look at him. With another snap, one vampire let go of Sean and came over to me. As I trembled, he picked up my hand and for some reason I thought he was going to kiss it except when I heard a crack and pain rippled down my arm, then I realized he had broken one of my fingers; this time it hurt so badly that I was too shocked to scream. I felt another pain on another finger and knew that he had broken another one, but oddly enough it was almost like I didn't feel it. Why was my vision getting fuzzy and I feel like I'm floating?

I looked up at Jesse and heard him say, sounding very far away, "bite her. But then suck the venom out of her so she doesn't turn." I knew that I should be more afraid than I was, but everything literally felt and looked blurred around the edges. The vampire picked up my arm again and moved his mouth to my arm, and when he bit down it hurt so badly that I didn't know what to do. It felt like glass was piercing my arm and I could literally feel the venom spreading down my arm and into my broken fingers. Finally coming out of the blur I started screaming so loudly I'm pretty sure Quil could hear me. As the venom spread to my shoulder, I begged and cried for him to make it stop. I screamed and screamed and finally I felt the vampire's mouth on the cut and as he sucked out the venom I screamed even louder, I vaguely saw the vampire pull his head back with a smile as I passed out.

When I stirred to near conciseness again, I could feel someone stroking my hair and I could feel every bump and bruise on my body, my fingers gave off a consistent throb of sharp pain, and my right arm was stinging mercilessly and my lips felt big and bruised. Finally waking up, I opened my eyes, let out a gasp, and tried to curl up into a ball to stop the pain, but someone held me down. I looked around and saw that Sean was gently stroking my hair and as I looked at him, he gave me a guilty smile. Then I saw that Antony was examining my fingers. I tilted my head up and looked at my bare torso, but had to lie down again because of what I saw and because the room felt like it was spinning. Then I noticed how liquid was pouring from my nose, down my face and seeping into my mouth, where I tasted blood. "Why is my nose bleeding?" I asked incoherently.

Sean gave me a pained look and said "he was a bit angry when you passed out. Just lie down and be still, while I make it stop." He pulled a cloth out and gently started to wipe the blood off and then held it to my nose. I sighed and then winced because it hurt to breathe. "What hurts?" asked Sean with a worried expression.

"It just hurts to breathe, but it's okay; no big deal," I said as Anthony and Sean exchanged half amused half pained expressions and started to laugh, while I rolled my eyes at them.

"Is it okay if I touch you Claire," Anthony asked, and I gave him a small nod, kind of afraid of guys touching me, especially when I'm only in jeans and a bra. Probably sensing my discomfort, Sean began to smooth my hair back again. I felt Anthony gently put his hands on my rib cage and he started to prod my ribs, while I held my breath. "Deep breaths, you're okay," Anthony muttered, when I let out an incoherent whine of pain when he touched a particularly painful spot.

"I think it stopped bleeding," muttered Sean and took the cloth off my face, while a squeaked a thanks.

By this time Anthony was just finishing and looked at me and said "you defiantly have at least two broken ribs, and as you can see the rest of you is one big bruise and will be for awhile and unfortunately if I do anything for you he'll know and then Sean and I will be killed." Before I could say that I was sorry for putting them in this position he continued "but as for your hand, I can set the bone back. So Sean if you could sit her up and make sure she doesn't move, it would be greatly appreciated." Sean gently slid his hand under my back and lifted me up so I was leaning against the wall and against him. He gently wrapped his arm around my waist and pushed my head down so it was cuddled into his neck as he whispered calming things to me, trying to get me to relax as I tensed against him, waiting for the pain. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in my finger and I let out a gasp and tensed into Sean, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when the vampire bit me. I felt the same thing again and thank god it was over. Sean helped me put my tank top and sweat shirt on again, while I tried not to look at the bloody crescent moon shaped scar on my arm.

"So Claire" said Anthony as Sean helped me lay down again "we're going to get you out of here within the next day. But we have to know if you can drive." He asked looking at me expectantly.

"Well, I can drive well enough. My brother taught me illegally last summer."

"Okay, well just hang tight until then and I'll distract him from seeing you in the next day. So go to sleep, because once we get you out of here you won't be able to sleep for a while." He got up and left, looking both ways to see if anyone was coming first.

I was dozing off, when I noticed that Sean was still here sitting quietly next to me. "Why are you in here? Did you sneak in?"

He smiled and said "he's trying to get me to change still, by seeing you in pain." We stayed in an awkward silence before he said "thanks for going through that for me. But I knew that we would never get you out of here if I was being controlled by him."

"I know, so really I didn't do that for you, I did it for me, which actually makes it very selfish," I murmured half asleep.

He laughed and bent down to kiss me on the cheek, "you're the least selfish, sweetest person I know." And I couldn't help but blush as I fell asleep.

I woke up to Sean gently calling my name and stroking my hair. I opened my eyes and felt like I was risen from the dead because I had slept so hard. "Come on sweetie, we're leaving," Sean said helping me to my unsteady legs, wrapping an arm around me so I wouldn't have to walk on my left leg, which was hurting really bad.

Anthony was standing near the door and said "okay so what we're going to do is that today we are getting a lot of orders in today for the kitchen, since Jesse can only eat the _best _food, and there are going to be cars going and leaving for at least three hours. What I'm going to do is put you and Sean into a box and wheel it into the truck, which will leave the mansion. Once you're out, you have to get out of the truck. Then Sean will run you down the road 7 miles to where a car will be waiting and you will have to drive home." To my surprise Anthony wrapped me up in a light hug before loading Sean and me into a box that could barely hold both of us.

I felt Anthony pick up the box onto a cart and started wheeling us down hallways. Soon I was really hot and nauseous and was breathing shallowly because of fear and the pain I was in. Finally I felt Anthony wheel is up a slant and I felt him pick us up and set us down and then I heard the door to the truck close. Soon the truck started moving and after probably twenty minutes of driving, Sean whispered "let's go." I felt him turn into a vampire and suddenly I was leaning against an ice cube instead of a human being. He effortlessly ripped through the cardboard and helped me to my feet and towards the door of the truck. He opened it effortlessly, but then I was blinded because of the sun shining into my eyes. I had forgotten that I hadn't been in sunlight for a very long time. Once my eyes had adjusted I could see that we were still pretty close to the mansion because the forest looked like the one that I had come here through. "Is it okay if I pick you up?" asked Sean and I nodded taking I painful step closer to him. He picked me up, careful not to move me around much. Before I could protest he jumped off the back of the truck, which was moving at least forty miles per hour, while I clung to him. The second he landed on his feet, he was running and not wanting to feel nauseous I closed my eyes. It felt like seconds later that he stopped and we were standing in front of a really old, small white car. He carried me over to the car, somehow managed to open the door and sat me down in the driver's seat.

He stood there for a minute, while I adjusted mirrors and stuff until he said "there's some food and water in the back for you trip and the map is on the seat, where you're supposed to go is marked in red. Don't go into any motels or hotels to sleep in and don't spend too much time in one place because it gives them a better chance to catch up to you, but if you have to, pull over and sleep. Also I gave you a lot of gas money, just in case."

"By the way, where am I?" I asked, since I have been wondering this since I got here.

"Tennessee" he said.

"Seriously, I have to drive half way across America?" I asked, not looking forward to it.

"Yeah, but if you only stop for minimal breaks it should only take two to three days."

"Oh wonderful, what if I get lost?" I asked.

"Don't worry you'll be fine."

"Um…well thank you for everything and I hope you don't get into too much trouble because of me," I said shyly.

"Don't worry about me, but I hope I won't be seeing you around here soon."

I smiled and he hugged me and kissed me on the cheek before I started the car and headed down the street. I was finally heading home.

-**Sky and Stars **


	26. Chapter 26

Burning Chapter 26

Quil's Point of View

I was sitting in Sam and Emily's kitchen and was once again hoping that I would hear Claire pounding down the stairs and see her bounce into the kitchen. But that wouldn't happen, because she isn't here and I knew that but still, I couldn't help but hope that this was one horrible nightmare. Since Claire….left, I have almost been a wolf the whole time, running around North America trying to find her, but to no luck. The only time I had been a human since was when the guys forced me phase and eat something, but within an hour I was a wolf again. Most of the time I didn't even sleep, when I got too tired to run anymore, I would lay down in the forest and sleep and the second I was awake I would go look for her again. Most of the guys had also been patrolling whenever they could, especially Sam and Jake, who had been looking for Claire almost obsessively as I have. When I wasn't looking for Claire and I could actually _see_ her absence I got so upset I didn't know what to do. I don't know what to do without her; I feel lost and venerable. Before she was taken I knew how much I cared about her, I mean she's my best friend and I love her as my best friend, but now that she's gone I have been thinking that I think I actually _love_ her like a boyfriend and only her lack of absence made me realize this. But none of this would matter if we didn't find her, but I would die trying. I was just about to leave and go looking again and thinking that I should more in the South, when Alice burst into the kitchen. Since Claire had been taken, the Cullen's were helping us and now all treaties are broken for the time being. Alice has been able to see Claire in her visions and every time she sees something she flinches. I asked her obsessively what she saw but, she only looked at me with an all knowing look and said "it's for her to tell you, not me." And with that, I dropped it, though it still drove me insane sometimes and Alice knew it. But anyway, as Alice burst into the kitchen she said "I can't see her anymore." The rest of the people in the kitchen looked at her with kind of surprised, half hopeful, half worried expressions. "The last time I saw her was when she was driving, in a _horrible_ white car and then it went black and I can't see her future anymore."

"So she's coming home? Do you know where she is?" I asked standing up and getting excited.

"I'm pretty sure she's coming home because she's alone in the car and I'm guessing she's somewhere in the South, but I don't exactly know where."

As I ran out of the house I yelled a thank you and phased, she's coming home, and I'm going to go find her.

Claire's Point of View

I am so tired, but I have to keep going. I had been driving for at least 6 hours. I had started in Tennessee, so close to the border that I was practically in Alabama, so almost an hour and a half ago I had finally passed into Missouri. In the last six hours I had drunk 4 of my 20 water bottles and ate a whole bag of goldfish and finally my headache dulled a little and I felt better than I had in awhile. Though my arms hurt from holding my hands up to the steering wheel, but the pain was manageable. As for the whole driving situation, at first I was scared out of my mind, especially about going onto the highway but once I had been driving for an hour I finally was able to relax. Four hours later the sun had gone and it was getting past midnight and I found myself down somewhere in the middle of Missouri and I had to go to sleep. I pulled off the highway into a rest stop, made sure all the doors were locked, climbed into the back seat, set an alarm to wake me up in a few hours and fell asleep.

Over the next couple of days I got into the habit of driving for hours and hours at a time, and stopping around midnight to sleep for a couple of hours. Luckily the map was marked out very easily so it would have been almost impossible to get lost unless I _really_ messed up. Three days later, ten bottles of water, two boxes of cheerios and one more of goldfish later, I had cut though Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and finally I came across the Washington State border line and I could have cried from happiness. All I wanted was to be home, but with me nothing really works out how I want it to.

I was finally under an hour until I got home and I was starting to get excited, when I noticed that a black car with almost completely blacked out windows was following closely behind me. I slowed down expecting them to want to pass me, but they never made any move to pass me. Was I was approaching an intersection fifteen minutes later, and another black car turned in front of me so closely that I had to break in order not to hit them. Because I hadn't seen anyone around on these roads for a half an hour before these cars showed up, and because both cars were _exactly _the same I knew this was a setup by my ex-fiancé, especially when another black car pulled up onto the lane on the left.

Because the road was only two lanes wide I was completely blocked from going anywhere, unless I wanted to crash into a tree, which I certainty did not want to do. Before I could do anything the car behind me rammed me forward into the car ahead so I was stuck between both cars, sparks flying. With no other brilliant plans coming to my head, I twisted the wheel to left ramming into the car on my left and also bringing both cars with me. I rammed against the car twice more and suddenly I was spinning around in circles, sparks were flying, then all of a sudden I was upside down, spinning around and there was a loud screaming sound under me or was it above me?. Then suddenly the car ran into something solid and the world stopped. There was nothing moving and all I could hear was my panicked breathing. The air bag was stuffed into my face, and I was hanging upside down by my seatbelt, my head inches away from the ceiling. Knowing I had to get out of there as soon as possible before the people in the black cars decided to come looking for me, I unbuckled my seatbelt and fell in a heap onto the inside of the roof and grabbing the map that was jammed between the seat and the shift, and crawled out of a window.

The car was completely destroyed, flipped upside down, with all of the windows broken, and crunched up against a tree. The other three cars we're spread out down the road, two others upside down and another on its side. I didn't know why I was so calm, I could have died or killed the other people but all of this was beginning to feel like an out of body experience. Suddenly someone grabbed me from behind and pressed their hand against my mouth. I bit their fingers, elbowed and kicked them a couple times and as they went down, I sprinted down the road.

I didn't know what to do. Should I walk on the road or in the forest? Or should I walk aimlessly though the forest and just hope that I find either a wolf to take me home or that I just hope that I eventually find it. Eventually I stopped running. Huffing, puffing, feeling dizzy and sick I wandered over to the side of the road and threw up. Once I felt better I decided that I should walk on the edge of the forest. I was trembling so hard that it was hard to walk, but I made myself keep going. I looked at the map and saw that it was a 7 mile walk to home. I looked at the hazy sun that was blocked by black rain clouds and saw that all light would be completely gone within a half hour. This should be fun.

TWO HOURS LATER

It was freezing. About a half an hour ago it starting raining, no wait, excuse my mistake, pouring. It was raining so hard that I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me. The wind was blowing so hard, it was almost hard for me to stay on my feet and it was making the tree branches blow around crazy and once in awhile one of the branches would break off. Thunder was booming so loud that I thought the world was ending and lightning was lighting up the sky. The combination of the wind and rain made it so cold that I couldn't feel any part of my body, my teeth were chattering so much it hurt and my hands were turning blue. But I only had 1 ½ miles to go, but every step was becoming agonizing. Twenty minutes later, even though I didn't think it was possible, it started getting even windier and pouring even harder. Five minutes later I turned onto Quil's street and soon I was so close to Quil's house I could cry. Then I could see Quil's house and was probably a two hundred from the house when I saw a shirtless Quil walk out of the forest, hands in pocketa, and so deep in thought that the weather seemed not to affect him. "Quil," I said my voice breaking. "Quil….Quil….Quil," but he didn't see me or hear me and kept walking toward the house and I knew that if he didn't come and get me that I wouldn't be able to make it to the house because I could already feel my legs buckling. Using the last of my strength I screamed as hard as I could "QUIL," and finally he snapped his head towards me and looked at me with wide eyes. I saw him sprint towards me, but at that second my body decided to finally give out and I fell forward. A split second before my face hit the ground, arms so warm it almost stung wrapped around me and cradled me and they smelled just like Quil. At that second I knew that everything would be okay. He ran with me inside the house and once we got inside I immediately felt like I was home and it almost brought me to tears. Quil gently set me on the floor in front of his couch, and kept me cradled in his arms and I never wanted him to let go. He stroked my soaking hair softly and murmured to me that everything was all right until finally I was completely relaxed and my panicked breathing had become deep calm breaths, but I was still shivering like crazy, even with Quil's super human heat. Once he knew that I was completely calm, he let go of me and as he took of my shoes and socks I couldn't help but look at his face and try to memorize it back into my head. Then he helped me out of my sweatshirt and luckily he didn't say anything about all my bruises on my arms, though I know he noticed them.

"I'll be right back," he said and kissed me warmly on the cheek. He came back a minute later with a big blanket and the phone. He wrapped the blanket around me tightly, leaned me against him, and put an arm tightly around me as he dialed a number. He murmured a conversation with someone and when he was done, gently pulled me onto his lap, where I buried my head into his chest.

Even with the blanket and Quil I was so cold that I was shivering violently and my hands were still blue. "It's so cold," I chattered. Before Quil could do anything, I heard the front door open and two pairs of footsteps come inside and after hanging up coats and stuff I saw it was Lily and a vampire, but he had light brown eyes instead of red so I immediately trusted him, especially if Quil did. Seeing me, Lily kneeled down and gave me a light hug then said "I'll go start a bath," and wondered upstairs, while I thought that I bath would be really nice.

The vampire introduced himself as Carlisle Cullen and I immediately recognized him as a doctor. On Carlisle's asking, Quil helped me pull off my tank top and that's when I noticed that I had a ton of bleeding scratches down arm and the skin on my left knee was scraped off, it must have been from the car crash. Once my shirt was off I saw that it took a great effort for Carlisle not to say anything and I heard Quil gasp and start shaking so hard that I was vibrating. Seeing this, Carlisle swiftly picked me up off Quil's lap and started taking me upstairs to the bathroom, as I looked down I saw that Quil had his head in his hands and was now shaking so hard the couch was moving.

Carlisle's Point of View

I looked at Quil shaking on the floor and knew I had to give him something to do before he completely lost it. "Quil, you can help her if you stay calm and don't phase and she's going to need something to wear so run to her house and see what you can get." Getting him out of here would probably make him more anxious for her, but it would probably help protect her. Without another word he ran out into the storm, while I tried to come up with something else to keep him distracted. A couple minutes later he came back with some of her clothes and before he could go and check on her I said "now go tell everyone that's she's back because they, um, won't have to keep looking for her anymore." He left again, and I felt kind of bad for doing this to him, but I don't think that he can handle seeing Claire this way, until after Lily and I are done.

Claire's Point of View

It also took a lot of Lily not to gasp and since she's a doctor also, I didn't take that as a good sign. She helped lower me into the steaming hot water and even though it stung like crazy, it felt really good. Lily had to wash my hair six times in order to make sure she got all the dirt out and she also found a couple twigs and a leaf. After an hour bath, I got out and was still a little cold, but I felt a lot better and was thinking more clearly. There were some of my clothes on the floor outside the door and Lily had me put on a pair of running shorts and a black bra, probably so they could see all of my injuries. Lily helped me down the stairs, sat me on the couch, while Carlisle wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. They started with my legs, each of them taking one, they stitched up a couple cuts, and put antibiotics and rubbing alcohol on all the cuts to clean them out, while I tried not to flinch at the stinging. Then they started with my torso. They laid me down of the sofa and I could tell that they didn't know where to start. They started by doing what they had done to my legs and when they we're done started looking at my rib cage. Carlisle touched my ribs so gently that even though that area was a gigantic bruise I couldn't feel it, finally when he was done he asked me "does it hurt when you breathe." I said yes, and then he said "you have at least two severely bruised ribs and one of them is broken." After stitching up some scrapes on my back, which was all bruised, and taping piece of gauze to my lower back where there was a long scrape, that I didn't even know that I had, he began to wrap medical tightly around my body from my arm pits to my hips. Even though it felt like I was wearing a corset it lessened the pain a little. As Lily started working on my left arm, Carlisle started working on my bruise of shoulder. "Has your right arm been dislocated recently?" I nodded and started to move both of my arms around in circles, even though he knew it hurt, but it didn't hurt at all compared to how much it used to hurt. "There's nothing I can really do for your shoulders, the pain will fade within the next week and the bruises will be gone, just try not to move them much." With that he started working on my right arm. Then after stitching up a cut on my cheek, making sure I didn't have a concussion, and asking me typical questions doctor questions, they we're done and I wondered where Quil was. I got dressed into a pair of sweatpants over my running shorts, a pair of thick socks, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt and a zip of sweatshirt and just as Lily was tossing a blanket over me as I laid on the couch, Quil walked into the house, car keys in hand.

Lily and Carlisle talked to Quil in whispers so that I couldn't hear what they were saying; they were probably giving Quil instructions on what to do with me. Then they left saying to rest and to drink a lot of water and Carlisle said to call him anytime if something was bothering me because it's not like he sleeps anyway.

Quil came over to me and sat on the floor next to the couch "are you okay? Can I do anything for you?"

"Will you please stay?" I asked, not wanting to be by myself.

"Of course sweetie, I'm not going anywhere," he said as he peeled my long, damaged, soaking hair off my neck. He went to the kitchen for a minute and came back with a brush. He motioned for me to sit up so he could come behind me and comb my hair out as I leaned against him. As he combed my hair out I was surprised by his patience for it and almost feel asleep because of how good it felt. When he was done he ran upstairs and came down with a hair dryer and started blow drying my hair. When he was done, he used his fingers to comb my hair away from my face and started braiding my hair back in one single braid.

"You know how to braid hair?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I used to braid your hair almost every day when you were little. I can do pigtails if you want," he joked. And I giggled. He laid me back down and sat back down on the floor and without his warmth I started shivering again. He popped up and came back with his warmest jacket. He peeled the other blanket off of me and wrapped me tightly in his jacket and with me curled up it almost covered me completely. "Sorry, I only have these two blankets because I don't really need them anymore." He put both blankets over me and the heat was making my eyes droop. Quil pulled over a rocking chair that was sitting in the corner and within seconds I was asleep.

**If you don't hate me for not updating, Please Review! Thanks!**

**-Sky and Stars **

**I do not own Twilight **


	27. Chapter 27

Burning Chapter 27

Claire's Point of View

I felt like I was waking from the dead. My body throbbed in pain and I felt unusually heavy and stiff. I opened my sleepy eyes and was surprised when I saw sun shining through the windows. How did such a terrible storm turn into a beautiful sunny day? Unsurprisingly, Quil was sitting near my feet on a rocking chair, reading something or other. He had dark circles under his eyes and I wondered if he stayed up all night making sure I was okay. God I felt awful. My throat was sore, my nose so stuffed up that I couldn't breathe and I was weak, in pain even when I just breathed, and even though I was finally able to sleep comfortably I was exhausted. Suddenly I felt like I had to sneeze and knowing how much it would hurt I tried my hardest not to, but sometimes it's unavoidable. As I sneezed, it racked my whole body and sharp pain shot from my toes to my shoulders.

To try to stop the pain I wrapped my arms around my stomach, but it didn't help at all and I couldn't stop shaking. Once the pain receded a little, I opened my eyes and saw Quil kneeling in front of me, looking at me with concern. "What's wrong?" He asked, making a motion like he wanted to touch me and then gave a shaky laugh and said "I'm scared to touch you in case I hurt you."

"You won't hurt me," I whispered because my throat hurt so much it felt like I couldn't talk. "I sneezed, and it hurt the rest of me because it hurts to move. And my voice sounds really stupid." It sounded like I was dying a horrible death because I was so stuffed up.

"You sound fine, it's only expected that you would get sick from walking through the storm two days ago."

I sniffed and asked "two days ago?"

"Yeah, you slept all through yesterday. But that's okay you looked like you really needed the sleep. Actually you still look like you need some sleep. Can I get you anything?"

"Could I have some tissues and a glass of water?" I asked and he wordlessly got up to go get them, while I painfully rearranged the blankets around me, to keep me warmer because for some strange reason I still felt cold and kind of clammy.

Quil came back within a minute and seeing what I was trying to do, and helped tuck the blankets around me. "Are you cold?"

"I was, but I'm fine now," I said through my cocoon of blankets. He nodded and put the box of tissues next to me on the couch, while I said thanks. And he smiled and told me I was being too polite as always, and I blushed. I pulled my hand out of the blankets, reached over and gently touched the black under his eyes. "Why haven't you been sleeping?"

"Claire, what in God's name happened to your hand?" I pulled my hand back and realized it was the hand that had two broken fingers, courtesy of Jesse. Whoops. Three of my fingers were tapped together and I had splints on the two broken one's and it was not a pretty sight. Funnily enough, I didn't even remember Lily taping them together. But I was so tired two nights ago that it felt so much of an out of body experience that I didn't even feel pain. But that had changed and now it hurt just to breathe.

I didn't really feel like answering Quil's question but he was looking at me so intently and with so much concern and after so much he's done for me, I at least owed him a answer to his questions. And he loved me. It was so blatantly obvious in the way he looked at me that it's amazing that I missed it before. Emily and Sam don't keep anything from each other and I wanted our relationship to be like that too. I put my bruised, throbbing hand back onto the couch and whispered "he broke my fingers."

Afraid to see his reaction, I pulled my hand under the covers and sunk into the couch as far as I could.

He sighed and closed his eyes tightly before looking at me gently and put his hand on the back of my neck and laid his head next to mine. "I'm so sorry."

"For what, you didn't do anything?" I asked totally confused.

"How could you not blame me? I let them hurt you and take you away from me." He said with hate of himself in his voice.

"Quil, what else could you have done, you and everyone else in the pack did everything they could to protect me and for that I am very grateful. And it's not your fault because honestly it was bound to happen eventually. And anyway when they kidnapped me in the woods you were more than outnumbered by vampires and I saw you fighting them off and I know you were trying to save me. And by being kidnapped it gave me a chance to save myself and take care of myself, so now I know I can take care of myself and handle anything. And I know that if you were with me you would have stopped them from hurting me, so because I don't blame you, you shouldn't blame yourself. And anyway I know that you tried to find me because I'm guessing that you didn't sleep at all because you were looking for me" I finished, awkwardly looking away.

Quil sighed again and said "you're too sweet for your own good," and I blushed.

We talked for a couple hours and I kept having coughing attacks. Whenever this would happen, Quil would hold onto me to try not to let me move, but there wasn't much he could do because it would still hurt like crazy and I would end up trembling with pain, and for some reason I was still really cold. Quil made me some pasta and I ate most of it with a couple glasses of water and I felt a little better. Quil had to go patrol for about an hour at three so I was alone and I was almost afraid to be alone because I was afraid that the vampires would come and find me, but I didn't tell Quil because I didn't want him to feel bad about leaving me.

With nothing else to do, I turned on the T.V and watched the news and I was surprised that they said the date was July 18, three days after my 15th birthday. Oh, well even if I was in La Plush we probably wouldn't have celebrated because of all the stuff going on and I decided that I wasn't going to tell Quil, just in case I hurt his feelings, or would it hurt his feelings if I didn't tell him? I should probably tell him, just make him promise not to celebrate or tell anyone.

Quil came back soon and resumed his position next to me, and I was surprised that when I learned that they had teamed up with the vampires in order to find me, and it seemed that Quil was actually okay with this idea. By six o'clock I was feeling sicker than ever and I was shivering even though pretty much no part of my skin was showing. "Oh, honey, you look even sicker and paler, I'm going to call Carlisle."

Within minutes of Quil calling, Carlisle was telling me by just looking at me that I had a fever, and it was confirmed when he got a thermometer which said I had a fever of 100. "Do you still feel really weak?" He asked and I said yes and then he asked me what I had eaten today, and then he asked me to stand up. Quil helped me up to my feet and immediately I felt lightheaded and Quil laid me back onto the couch before I could fall over.

Carlisle motioned Quil from my side and I could hear them whispering while I waited for my vision to stop blurring. Carlisle went upstairs into Quil's room and Quil came over to me and told me that he was going to carry me upstairs and Carlisle was going to give me an IV. Carlisle gave me one and Quil looked more uncomfortable with it than I was. Carlisle left then as Quil tucked me into his bead and put on all the blankets from downstairs. "Carlisle says we have to sweat this fever out of you, so if you're not warm enough tell me."

A half hour later, I started feeling stronger but I was still shivering, which made my whole body hurt. Seeing this Quil went back downstairs and came back with his coat. He pulled the millions of blankets off of me, wrapped his coat around my shoulders, and got into bed next to me. He gently pulled me onto my side and wrapped one arm around my waist and let me use it as a pillow, while I nuzzled my head into his neck.

Another hour went by and we hadn't said anything to each other, but I was feeling safer and better than I had in awhile, it was probably because of the IV, but I liked to think it was Quil. Even with Quil holding me I was still a little cold. "Do you want to talk about it?" Quil asked from above me.

"Do you want me to talk about it?"

"Only if you feel comfortable."

"Are you sure you want to hear about it?"

"Of course I want to hear about it?"

"Promise you won't get mad?"

"I can't promise that, but why would I get mad, I won't get mad at you, I get mad at them. You do understand that, yeah."

I sighed and said "yes, and I might as well tell you."

I started talking and purposely left out the fact that I knew he imprinted on me. Quil had to leave a couple times and go outside and phase because he got so angry. Especially when I told him about how Jesse kissed me and touched m and stuff like that, he freaked out and panicked that he raped me. It took him a whole hour to come back after that one. Once I was done and Quil came back in and I couldn't help but cry and Quil started crying too, as he held me and rocked me back in forth.

"Quil" I said through my tears, "my birthday was three days ago."

Through his tears he hiccupped and said "of course it was."

**Thanks for Reading!**

**-Sky and Stars **

**I do not own Twilight**


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